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Satellite Communications
ELEM026
Professor Clive Parini
Lecture 6 Multipath & OFDM 2011
THE PROBLEM OF MULTIPATH
DELAY SPREAD
Multipath delay spread
An impulse is transmitted at time t=0,
assuming there are a multitude of reected
paths present a receiver located say 1Km
away would detect a series of pulses, or delay
spread.
Time,t
s
0 1 2 3 4 5
power
!t
Direct path
Useful symbol
duration T
u

Intersymbol Interference (ISI)
If !t is signicant compared to one symbol period
then ISI can occur.
Symbols arriving later than their own symbol period can
corrupt trailing symbols
For a xed path difference and given delay spread a
higher data rate system will be more prone to ISI.
For a GSM system operating at 270Kbit/s will the delay
spread shown previously cause ISI?
Symbol period = 1/270K = 3.7s
Answer is ?
EQUALISATION-1
ISI can be overcome using Equalisation
In its most simplest form ISI in a channel has resulted from
the addition of the data stream plus a delayed version of this
data stream.
The principle of EQUALISATION is that by taking this
received signal, delaying part of it, and subtracting it from
itself the original signal can be recovered.
Take for example the decision feedback equaliser
First need to know what reections there were and what the signal
strength was from each of these. i.e. it needs to determine
Time,t
s
0 1 2 3 4 5
power
!t
EQUALISATION-e.g. GSM
Knowledge about the channels multipath delay
spread is obtained by sending periodically a blip
out to the mobile.
To work, the channel needs to send nothing for a
moment, then send the blip and then another wait period.
The mobile then receives the multipath delay spread.
This blip must be frequently sent since even a slight
movement can change the multipath in a channel.
For GSM a blip is sent to each mobile every 4ms
In practice a blip is not sent (too sharp leading to wide
spectral range)
Instead a special binary sequence called the channel
sounding sequence is sent
CDMA & multipath
CDMA is well matched to a multipath channel.
If signals arrive more than one chip apart from each
other the receiver can resolve them. The cross-
correlation between the spreading code and a copy of it
delayed by one chip is very near to zero. Hence
multipath is treated like any other interfering channel.
But there is more
Instead of ignoring these delayed versions of the
desired signal they can be received with a delayed
spreading code and combined. This is the RAKE
receiver.
CDMA RAKE receiver
Consider a channel receiving a direct signal of
amplitude a
1
and delay t
1
plus two multipath signals
having amplitudes a
2
, a
3
and delays t
2
, t
3
.
Binary
data
Code
generator
modulator
t
1

a
1

t
2 a
2
t
3 a
3
Multipath channel
De-
modulator
a
1

a
2
a
3
RAKE receiver
C(t-t
1
)
C(t-t
2
)
C(t-t
3
)
Multipath delays less
than one chip cannot
be recovered
Intersymbol interference (ISI) and
the multicarrier approach
The problem lies in the fact
that over the transmission
bandwidth (determined by the
symbol rate) the channel
frequency characteristics are
non linear.
We could reduce the symbol
rate so channel characteristics
more linear over the bandwidth
If we had an 8 bit word to send
we could reduce the symbol
rate by a factor of 8 BUT use 8
different sub carriers as shown
B
Pulse length ~1/B
Data are transmited over only one carrier
Channel
Guard bands
NEEDED
Channelization
N carriers
B
Pulse length ~ N/B
Similar to
FDM technique
Data are shared among several carriers
and simultaneously transmitted
Modulation techniques: monocarrier vs. multicarrier
To improve the spectral efficiency:
To use orthogonal carriers (allowing overlapping)
Eliminate band guards between carriers
Selective Fading
Very short pulses
ISI is compartively long
Poor spectral efficiency
because of band guards
Drawbacks
It is easy to exploit
Frequency diversity
Flat Fading per carrier
N long pulses
ISI is comparatively short
Poor spectral efficiency
because of band guards
Advantages
Furthermore
It allows to deploy
2D coding techniques
Dynamic signalling
N carriers
B
Pulse length ~ N/B
Similar to
FDM technique
Data are shared among several carriers
and simultaneously transmitted
B
Pulse length ~1/B
Data are transmited over only one carrier
Channel
Guard bands
Channelization
ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISON MULTIPLEX
OFDM A digital multicarrier modulation method
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), also
sometimes called discrete multitone modulation (DMT), is based
upon the principle of frequency division FDM, but is utilized as a
digital modulation scheme.
The bit stream that is to be transmitted is split into several
parallel bit streams, typically dozens to thousands.
The available frequency spectrum is divided into several sub-
channels, and each low-rate bit stream is transmitted over one
sub-channel by modulating a sub-carrier using a standard
modulation scheme, for example QPSK
The sub-carrier frequencies are chosen so that the modulated
data streams are orthogonal to each other, meaning that cross-
talk between the sub-channels is eliminated.
Orthogonality
Orthogonality requires that the sub-carrier spacing is
"f=k/T
u
Hz, where T
u
seconds is the useful symbol
duration (the receiver side window size), and k is a
positive integer. (often=1)
Thus, with N sub-carriers, the total pass-band bandwidth
will be B # N"f (Hz).
Example: A useful symbol duration T
U
= 1 ms.
N = 1,000 sub-carriers would result in a total passband
bandwidth of N#f = 1 MHz.
For this symbol time, the required bandwidth in theory
according to Nyquist is N/2T
U
= 0.5 MHz (i.e., half of the
achieved bandwidth required by this method).
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OFDM the principal
Data coded in frequency domain
N carriers
B
Transformation to time domain:
each frequency is a sine wave
in time, all added up.
f
Transmit
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memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted.
Restart your computer, and then open the le again. If the red x still
appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again.
Symbol: 8 periods of f
0
The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough
memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted.
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appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again.
Symbol: 4 periods of f
0

Symbol: 2 periods of f
0

+
Receive
time
B
Decode each frequency
bin separately
The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough
memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted.
Restart your computer, and then open the le again. If the red x still
appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again.
Channel frequency
response
f
f
Time-domain signal Frequency-domain signal
OFDM uses multiple carriers to modulate the data
N carriers
B
Modulation technique
A user utilizes all carriers to transmit its data as coded quantity at each
frequency carrier, which can be BPSK or QPSK.
Intercarrier Separation =
k/(symbol duration)
No intercarrier guard bands
Controlled overlapping of bands
Maximum spectral efficiency (Nyquist rate)
Very sensitive to freq. synchronization
Easy implementation using IFFTs
Features
Data
Carrier
T=1/f
0
Time
f
0
B
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

One OFDM symbol
Time-frequency grid
Spectrum for a single BPSK signal
modulated with random signal with nulls at
symbol rate
For 8 bit code word use 8 sub band
frequencies spaced the symbol rate apart
and modulate each one with one bit of the
word using BPSK. Spectrum is shown, note
at each sub carrier frequency no interference
from other sub carriers -they are orthogonal
This gives the following time response for
the symbol 10110001
Recovered phase of sub carriers (blue),
sent (black). It can be seen that the
orthogonality is maintained and all that is
required for correct decoding is to equalize
the phase shift.
OFDM: simple 8bit BPSK
example
OFDM TRANSMITTER
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EG
For BPSK, the map is +1, -1;
for QPSK the map is 1+j1, 1-j1, -1-j1, -1+j1
UP CONVERT
ONTO RF
CARRIERS (SINE
AND COSINE
WAVES)
Rather than use 8 separate BPSK modulators can
create the time domain symbol using constellation
mapping plus IFFT.
OFDM RECEIVER
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DOWN CONVERTED TO
BASEBAND SINE AND
COSINE WAVES
USE FFT TO
GET BACK TO
FREQUENCY
DOMAIN
CONVERT BPSK OR
QPSK
CONSTELATION
INTO PARELLEL BIT
STREAMS AND
RESTORE TO SINGLE
HIGH DATA RATE
SERIAL DIGITAL
SIGNAL
e.g. for QPSK:
1+j1 converts to 11
1-j1 converts to 10
-1-j1 converts to 01
-1+j1 coverts to 00
OFDM SUMMARY
ISI limits the symbol time, so for data rate R, symbol period is
T
s
=1/R.
By splitting data into N streams, each sub-stream has rate R/N
and symbol time of N/R, i.e its N times longer and so is more
immune to ISI.
As a design criteria N is chosen such that NT
s
=

T
u
signicantly
greater than rms delay spread of channel.
Typical system :
64 sub channels QPSK modulated
Each channel symbol rate=0.25Mps
48 subcarriers devoted to information transmission
4 subcarriers used for pilot tone (synchronisation)
12 for other purposes
Occupied BW=20MHz, 312.5Khz/subchannel
Usable data rate =12Mbs
Subchannel symbol duration=4000ns
Guard time between 2 transmitted symbols =800ns
OFDM issues
Since the duration of each symbol is long, it is feasible to insert a
guard interval between the OFDM symbols, thus eliminating any
intersymbol interference.
OFDM requires very accurate frequency synchronization between
the receiver and the transmitter; with frequency deviation the sub-
carriers will no longer be orthogonal, causing inter-carrier
interference (ICI) (i.e., cross-talk between the sub-carriers).
Frequency offsets are typically caused by mismatched transmitter
and receiver oscillators, or by Doppler shift due to movement.
While Doppler shift alone may be compensated for by the
receiver, the situation is worsened when combined with multipath,
as reections will appear at various frequency offsets, which is
much harder to correct.
This effect typically worsens as speed increases and is an
important factor limiting the use of OFDM in high-speed vehicles.
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OFDM applications
DAB - OFDM forms the basis for the Digital
Audio Broadcasting (DAB) standard in the
European market.
ADSL - OFDM forms the basis for the global
ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line)
standard.
UWB