Implementation of OFDM in DVB-T based on non-linear channels in wireless communications

MANJUNATH B (1), CHANDRAKALA V (2), JUNAID FAROOQ WAR (3)

M.Tech, Digital Communication and Networking, Assistant Professor, Digital Communication and Networking, Dept. of Telecommunication, Dr.AIT, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
(2)
(1)

(1)(3)

manjubasavaraju.23@gmail.com (2) v_chandu9@yahoo.co.in (3) warjunaid@gmail.com

Abstract-

Gone are the days when communication was mainly exchanging of voice. Now communication systems are mainly intended for exchange of data at very high data rates with high capacity and reliability. In wireless environment, various factors like multipath delay, fading, ISI severely affect signals. In addition the major problems associated with single carrier systems are its inability to cope with bandwidth efficiency, higher throughput, multipath fading and ISI. In this paper OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) which is a multi-carrier modulation technique in which all its sub carriers are orthogonal to each other to overcome ISI is considered for one of its major applications DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial) and its performance is analyzed for modulation scheme of 4QAM for different SNR (Signal to Noise ratio) over nonlinear wireless channels namely AWGN (Additive White Gaussian Noise), Rayleigh and Rician channels for 2k and 8k mode carriers. A simulation model for this will be created in MATLAB and constellation diagrams for different SNRs are compared for different channels. Keywords- OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), Multi-carrier modulation, DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial), ISI (Inter Symbol Interference), SNR (Signal-to-noise ratio).

I.

INTRODUCTION

In the communication world of today, high data rate information transmission along with high capacity and reliability are just some of the requirements which modern system have to meet in order to provide a good quality of service to the end user. The arenas where wireless communication systems are deployed, signals usually suffer phenomenon like multipath delay, fading and Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) due to the frequency selectivity of the channel at the receiver side, the result of which is the poor performance and high probability of errors. In order to overcome the above mentioned issues channel coding and equalization techniques are implemented. But due to the cost of hardware and various technical issues like delays in coding and equalization process, it is not feasible to employ these techniques

where desired bit rates and the reliability of data expectations are quiet high. The solution to this issue is to implement an effective scheme like OFDM where the high bit rate over the frequency selective channel is guaranteed to some extent. Multi-Carrier modulation is a technique for datatransmission by dividing a high-bit rate data stream into several parallel low bit-rate data streams and using these low bit-rate data streams to modulate several carriers. Multi-Carrier Transmission has a lot of useful properties such as delay-spread tolerance and spectrum efficiency that encourage their use in untethered broadband communications. OFDM is a multi-carrier modulation technique with densely spaced sub-carriers that has gained a lot of popularity among the broadband community in the last few years. Currently OFDM is a widely used scheme in almost all communication system ranging from ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) to WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). In OFDM the channel is sub-divided into multiple channels known as sub channelization, which are transmitted in parallel fashion and which ultimately increases the symbol duration and decreases ISI. In the past few years OFDM has been standardized for use in Digital Audio and Video Broadcasting known as DAB and DVB respectively. In Europe, terrestrial based video broadcasting has already been implemented under the standard known as Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial. In this paper the performance evaluation of OFDM is done by sending the DVB-T based OFDM signal through AWGN, Rayleigh and Rician channels. DVB-T 2k and 8k mode are analyzed where in DVB-T 2k mode there are 1705 carriers and in DVB-T 8k mode there are 6817 carriers. The constellation diagram of 4QAM modulation is observed for different channels. Also BER (Bit Error Rate) for different SNR is found for different channels and the results are observed.

II.

BLOCK DIAGRAM GUARD INTERVAL FIR LOW PASS FILTER UP CONVERTER

I/P

4-QAM SYMBOLS

S/P
CONV.

IFFT

AWGN channel RAYLEIGH channel RICIAN channel

O/P
QAM SLICER P/S
CONV.

FFT

REMOVAL OF GUARD INTERVAL

FIR LOW PASS FILTER

DOWN CONVERTER

Fig.1 Block diagram of OFDM model

The implementation of OFDM system by using DVB-T parameters can be best understood with the help of Fig.1. Discrete signal is generated by using Matlab codes and the signal is then mapped in QAM fashion (4QAM). An IFFT is performed to translate the signal in time domain and a guard interval is inserted. After passing the signal from filter, an Up conversion is performed. The output signal is then passed through three different channels (AWGN, Rayleigh and Rician) where they are analyzed to find the optimal performance parameters for 2k, and 8k mode. At the receiver side the inverse process is performed to retrieve the signal back to the original shape, thus down conversion, filtering, removal of guard interval, FFT and QAM slicing is performed respectively. As it is discussed that different channels have different capabilities in terms of adding noise, so the key point of this paper is to investigate these issues and propose a solution so that the problems can be eliminated in practical scenario of video broadcasting in order to perform optimized transmission and reception. A. OFDM OFDM is a multi-channel modulation system employing Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) of orthogonal sub-carriers, each modulating a low bit-rate digital Stream. In older multi-channel systems using FDM, the total available bandwidth is divided into N nonoverlapping frequency sub-channels. Each sub-channel is modulated with a separate symbol stream and the N subchannels are frequency multiplexed.

Even though the prevention of spectral overlapping of sub-carriers reduces (or eliminates) Interchannel Interference, this leads to an inefficient use of spectrum. The guard bands on either side of each subchannel are a waste of precious bandwidth. To overcome the problem of bandwidth wastage, we can instead use N overlapping (but orthogonal) subcarriers, each carrying a baud rate of 1/T and spaced 1/T apart. Because of the frequency spacing selected, the sub-carriers are all mathematically orthogonal to each other. This permits the proper demodulation of the symbol streams without the requirement of nonoverlapping spectra. Another way of specifying the subcarrier orthogonality condition is that each sub-carrier should have exactly integer number of cycles in the interval T. It can be shown that the modulation of these orthogonal sub-carriers can be represented as an Inverse Fourier Transform. B. Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T) Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a standard for broadcasting Digital Television over satellites, cables and through terrestrial (wireless) transmission. DVB was standardized by the ETSI in 1997. The following are some important parameters of DVB: DVB has two modes of operation: the 2k mode with 1705 sub-carriers and the 8k modes with 6817 sub-carriers. DVB uses QPSK, 4-QAM, 16-QAM or 64QAM sub-carrier modulation.

DVB uses a Reed-Solomon outer code (204,188, t=8) and an inner convolutional code with generator polynomials (177,133 octal) combined with two layers of interleaving for error-control. Pilot Sub-carriers are used to obtain reference amplitudes and phases for coherent demodulation. Two-dimensional channel estimation is performed using the pilot subcarriers, which aids in the reception of the OFDM signal.
TABLE I DVB-T PARAMETRES FOR 2K AND 8K MODE

Fig.3 PDF of RAYLEIGH 3) RICIAN Rician fading is a stochastic model for radio propagation anomaly caused by partial cancellation of a radio signal by itself - the signal arrives at the receiver by several different paths (hence exhibiting multipath interference), and at least one of the paths is changing (lengthening or shortening). Rician fading occurs when one of the paths, typically a line of sight signal, is much stronger than the others. In Rician fading, the amplitude gain is characterized by a Rician distribution. Rayleigh fading is the specialized model for stochastic fading when there is no line of sight signal, and is sometimes considered as a special case of the more generalized concept of Rician fading

Parameters No of carriers K Value of carrier number Kmin Value of carrier number Kmax Duration Tu Carrier Spacing 1/Tu

2K Mode 1705 0 1704 224uS 4464 Hz 7.61 MHz

8K Mode 6817 0 6816 896us 1116 Hz 7.61 MHz

Spacing between carriers Kmin and Kmax (K-1)/ Tu

C. CHANNELS 1) AWGN Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is a channel model in which the only impairment to communication is a linear addition of wideband or white noise with a constant spectral density (expressed as watts per hertz of bandwidth) and a Gaussian distribution of amplitude. The model does not account for fading, frequency selectivity, interference, nonlinearit y or dispersion.

Fig.4 PDF of RICIAN III. A. APPLICATIONS

Fig.2 PDF of AWGN 2) RAYLEIGH Rayleigh fading is a statistical model for the effect of a propagation environment on a radio signal, such as that used by wireless devices. Rayleigh fading models assume that the magnitude of a signal that has passed through such a transmission medium will vary randomly, or fade, according to a Rayleigh distribution.

Digital Television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of audio and video by digitally processed and multiplexed signal, in contrast to the totally analog and channel separated signals used by analog television. Many countries are replacing broadcast analog television with digital television to allow other uses of the television radio spectrum. There are four different digital television terrestrial broadcasting standards (DTTB) and they are: Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC), Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T), Terrestrial Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting (ISDB-T), Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB).

B.

Wireless Local Area Networks (Hiperlan 2) HiperLAN/2 standard uses OFDM signals (orthogonal frequency-division multiplex) for wireless LAN. Several mobile terminals communicate with one base station. HiperLAN/2 signals consist of 64 carriers, 52 of which are modulated and transmit data and reference signals, so called pilots. While the pilots are always BPSK modulated, the remaining carriers used can alternatively be QPSK-, 16Q AM- or 64QAM-modulated. C. Future mobile telephony DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld) is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H technology is a superset of the successful DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial) system for digital terrestrial television, with additional features to meet the specific requirements of handheld, battery-powered receivers. DVB-H can offer a downstream channel at high data rates which can be used as standalone or as an enhancement of mobile telecommunication networks which many typical handheld terminals are able to access anyway. IV. ADVANTAGES

all the signal components can add up in phase and produce a large output and in some other cases, they may cancel each other producing zero output. Thus the peakto-average ratio (PAR) of the OFDM system is very large. VI. A. RESULTS

Original 4-QAM constellation

Fig.5 Original 4-QAM constellation

B. DVB-T 2K mode carriers A. Multi-path Delay Spread Tolerance The increase in the symbol time of the OFDM symbol by N times (N being the number of sub-carriers), leads to a corresponding increase in the effectiveness of OFDM against the ISI caused due to multi-path delay spread. B. Effectiveness against Channel Distortion In OFDM systems on the other hand, since the bandwidth of each sub-carrier is very small, the amplitude response over this narrow bandwidth will be basically flat (of course, one can safely assume that the phase response will be linear over this narrow bandwidth). Even in the case of extreme amplitude distortion, an equalizer of very simple structure will be enough to correct the distortion in each sub-carrier. C. Throughput Maximization The use of sub-carrier modulation improves the flexibility of OFDM to channel fading and distortion makes it possible for the system to transmit at maximum possible capacity using a technique called channel loading. V. DISADVANTAGE A. Peak-to-Average ratio One of the most serious problems with OFDM transmission is that, it exhibits a high peak-to-average ratio. In other words, there is a problem of extreme amplitude excursions of the transmitted signal. The OFDM signal is basically a sum of N complex random variables, each of which can be considered as a complex modulated signal at different frequencies. In some cases,
Fig.7 BER of 4-QAM Signal via AWGN, Rician and Rayleigh Channel for SNR 0 to 8 db for 2k mode carriers.

Fig.6 Received constellation of 4-QAM Signal at 6dB SNR via Rayleigh, AWGN and Rician channel, respectively for 2k mode carriers.

C. DVB-T 8K mode carriers

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time-varying multipath Rayleigh fading channels, IEEE Tran. Vehicular Technology, vol. 48, pp. 1610-1615, September 1999. Y. Li, L. J. Cimini, Jr., and N.R. Sollenberger, Robust channel estimation for OFDM system with rapid dispersive fading channels, IEEE Tran. Commun ., vol. 46, pp. 902-915, July 1998.

Fig.8 Received Constellation of 4-QAM Signal at 6dB SNR via Rayleigh, AWGN and Rician Channel for 8k mode carriers.

Fig.9 BER of 4-QAM Signal via AWGN, Rayleigh and Rician Channel for SNR 0 to 8dB for 8k mode carriers.

VII. CONCLUSION The paper investigated the performance of OFDM and its implementation in an application: DVB-T. 4-QAM modulation scheme is used and its constellation diagrams for different channels are observed. Bit error rate v/s SNR graph is plotted for the same and the results are analyzed for both 2k and 8k mode carriers. It found that the performance over Rician channel is best, Rayleigh is least for multipath environment and that of AWGN lies in between Rayleigh and Rician. REFERENCES
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