11.

802a ‫סיכום פרוטוקול‬

The encoding illustration goes through the following stages:
a) Generating the short training sequence section of the preamble;
b) Generating the long preamble sequence section of the preamble;
c) Generating the SIGNAL field bits;
d) Coding and interleaving the SIGNAL field bits;
e) Mapping the SIGNAL field into frequency domain;
f) Pilot insertion;
g) Transforming into time domain;
h) Delineating the data octet stream into a bit stream;
i) Prepending the SERVICE field and adding the pad bits, thus forming the DATA;
j) Scrambling and zeroing the tail bits;
k) Encoding the DATA with a convolutional encoder and puncturing;
l) Mapping into complex 16-QAM symbols;
m) Pilot insertion;
n) Transforming from frequency to time and adding a circular prefix;
o) Concatenating the OFDM symbols into a single, time-domain signal.
PLCP
Physical Layer Convergence Protocol: defines exactly how cells are formatted within a data stream for a particular type of transmission facility.

OFDM PLCP sublayer

packet consist 3 part:
1. PLCP preamble: for sync.
2. SIGNAL
3. DATA

the symbol duration is T = 3.2 µ s . OFDM Bandwidth is 20 MHz , there're 20 subcarriers, hence

20 MHz
∆ F : subcarriers frequency spacing = = 312.5 KHz . That implies that the used subcarriers
64 subcarrier
 ±k
are = ±312.5kHz, ± 625kHz, ± 1250kHz ... and so on.
T
The available bandwidth of 20 MHz is split into 64 subcarriers. Out of the available 64 subcarriers having

indices k = [ −32,... + 31] , the number of used subcarriers is 52. The used subcarriers are having indices from

[ −26,..., −1, +1,..., +26 ] are used for transmitting information sequence a1 to a52 .
802.11a assigns the first 6 subcarriers located at the lower end of the channel to act as guard subcarriers. This
is to protect against Inter-channel Interference (ICI) with the adjacent lower channel. Likewise, the last 5
subcarriers, located at the upper end of the channel are used to guard against ICI with the adjacent upper channel.
These subcarriers are inactive or null. These 11 subcarriers (5 + 6) make up the “guard band” between any two
adjacent channels. The center subcarrier, called the Direct Conversion subcarrier (DC), is also inactive. The
reservation of these 12 non-populated subcarriers (11 guards and 1 DC), leaves a remainder of 52 populated
subcarriers.
802.11a reserves 4 to be used as “pilot subcarriers”, which carry only timing and frequency information to help
the receiver synchronize with the transmitted signal. Although, the pilots are used to carry information, it’s not
information taken from the input data stream

Part 1: PLCP preamble (SYNC) (PLCP Preamble, SIGNAL, DATA)

Time length is 16 μs. 10 short symbols, and 2 long symbols.

PLCP preabmle

denote short training symbols. Every ti t1 − t10

contain 16 samples. Hence, we get a table
.with 160 samples

.denote long training symbols T1 , T2

A short OFDM training symbol consist of 12

subcarriers
We take G.2 table (frequency domain
representation of the short sequence) to
perform IFFT, one should
Connect G.2 as figure 109 to get table G.3

After that, we extend table G.2 for 2.5 times

to get table G.4. index k=1,160 are half
.from origin value

Part 2: SIGNAL field (PLCP Preamble, SIGNAL, DATA)

SIGNAL field bit

assignment →

SIGNAL is transmitted with the most robust combination of BPSK modulation and a coding rate of
R = 1/2.
The tail bits in the SIGNAL symbol enable decoding of the RATE and LENGTH fields immediately
after the reception of the tail bits. The RATE and LENGTH are required for decoding the DATA part of
the packet (next part).
Contain some part. Length is 24 bits.
This field is one OFDM symbol, by BPSK and rate is 1/2.
The contents of the SIGNAL field are not scrambled.
Bit allocation:
0-3 RATE:
carry information about the packet's modulation type and packet's coding
rate.
4 Reserved for future use.
5-16 LENGTH: Unsigned. The least significant bit (LSB) being transmitted first.
17 Parity bit for 0-16 bits.
18-23 SIGNAL TAIL: Constant "0".
 Bits definition for rate

Part 3: DATA field (PLCP Preamble, SIGNAL, DATA)

DATA are transmitted at the data rate described in the RATE field as described previously and
may constitute multiple OFDM symbols.

All bits in the DATA field are scrambled.

Bit allocation:
0-15 SERVICE
0-6 bits used to synchronize the scrambler in the receiver.
7-15 bits reserved for future used.

PSDU
TAIL: 6 bits "0"
PAD: The number of bits in the DATA field shall be a multiple of N CBPS [ the
number of coded bits in an OFDM symbol (48, 96, 192, or 288 bits. multiple of
48)].
N DBPS : number data bits per OFDM symbol.
Following equations are for N PAD calculation:
 N SYM = Ceiling ( ( 16 + 8 ⋅ LENGTH + 6 ) / N DBPS ) N 
 SYM number of OFDM symbol 

N DATA = N SYS ⋅ N DBPS 

 N DATA

number of bits in data field 

N PAD = N DATA − ( 16 + 8 ⋅ LENGTH + 6 )

Ceiling (.) denotes the smallest integer greater or equal the parameter.

Explanation in 17.3.5.4

DATA is scrambled (17.3.5.4), pass Convolution Encoder (17.3.5.5) and Data Interleaving
(17.3.5.6).
Data Interleaving
N CBPS : number of coded bits in a OFDM symbol
Index notation k→ first permutaion → i → sec ond permutation → j
The Data Interleaving is define by 2 step permutation: multiple of 48
1. Ensure that adjacent coded bits are mapped onto nonadjacent subcarriers:
N CBPS
i= (k mod 16) + floor(k /16) k = 0,1,…, N CBPS –1
16
floor (.) denotes the largest integer not exceeding the parameter.
2. Ensure that adjacent coded bits are mapped alternately onto LSB and MSB of
the constellation, and hence, long run of low reliability (LSB) are avoided.

j = s ⋅ floor(i/s) + [ i+N CBPS -floor(16 ⋅ i/N CBPS )] mod s i = 0,1,..NCBPS -1

N 
Where s = max  BPSC ,1 
 2 
 

Subcarrier modulation mapping

OFDM subcarriers modulated by RATE request. The data should divided into group of N BPSC (1,2,4

or 6) bits and converted into complex number representing by the chosen constellation to I ( real )

and Q ( img ) , by Gray-Code . The resulting d , should multiply by normalization factor K MOD :

d = ( I + jQ ) ⋅ K MOD

Table for K MOD . The purpose of the normalization factor is to achieve the same average power
for all mappings.

Modulation K MOD
BPSK 1
QPSK 1
2
16 QAM 1
10
64 QAM 1
42
Maps of Gray Code 17.3.5.7 16QAM, 64QAM
 Pilot Subcarriers
4 subcarrier are pilots. These pilot signals shall be put in subcarriers –21, –7, 7 and 21. The
pilots shall be BPSK modulated by a pseudo binary sequence to prevent the generation of
spectral lines.

OFDM modulation

The stream of complex numbers (after mapping d = I + jQ ) is divided into groups of

N SD = 48 (number of data subcarrier) complex numbers.
We can write the complex number d k , n ,which corresponds to subcarrier k ,of OFDM symbol n,
as follows:
d k , n = d k + n⋅N SD k = 0,...N SD − 1 n = 0,...N SYM − 1 when NSYM is number ofdm symbol.
One of many OFDM symbol, rDATA, n ( t ) is defined as
 N SD −1 N ST
2 
( j 2π ⋅M ( k ) ∆ F ( t −TGI ) )
+ pn +1 ∑ Pk e(
j 2π k ∆ F ( t −TGI ) )
rDATA, n ( t ) = wTSYM ( t )  ∑ d k , n e 
 k =0 N ST 
 k =−
2 
Now we explain M ( k ) , Pk , pn :

1. M ( k ) function define mapping from logical subcarrier number 0-47 into

frequency offset index (-26)-26 while skipping the 0th (DC) subcarrier.

2. Pk : Fourier transform on sequence Pk produce the pilot subcarriers for nth

OFDM symbol.

3. pn : The polarity of the pilot subcarriers is controlled by the sequence, pn,

which is a cyclic extension of the 127 element sequence and given in
17.3.5.9

N SYM −1
Hence, we can write the whole OFDM symbol in one sigma: rDATA ( t ) = ∑
n=0
rDATA, n ( t − n ⋅ TSYM )

Transmitter and receiver block diagram for the OFDM

Channel center frequencies are defined at every integral multiple of 5 MHz above 5 GHz. The
relationship
between center frequency and channel number is given by the following equation:
Channel center frequency = 5000 + 5 × n ch ( MHz ) when nch = 0,1..200

Parameter Value
N CBPS : number of coded bits in a OFDM symbol 48,96,192 or 288 bits  multiple of 48

N DBPS : number data bits per OFDM symbol

N SYM : number of OFDM symbols
N DATA : number of bits in DATA field
N SD : number of data subcarriers 48
N PD : number of pilot subcarriers 4
N ST : number of subcarriers total 52 = N SD + N SP
∆ F : subcarriers frequency spacing 0.3125 MHz ( = 20 MHz / 64 )
TFFT : IFFT / FFT period 3.2 µ s ( = 1/ ∆ F )
TPREAMBLE : PLCP preamble duration 16 µ s ( = TSHORT + TLONG )
First part of the packets (PLCP preamble, SIGNAL,
DATA)
TSIGNAL = duration of the SIGNAL BPSK − OFDM symbol 4 µ s ( = TGI + TFFT )
TGI : guard interval duration  T 
0.8µ s  = FFT 
 4 
TGI 2 : training symbol GI duration  T 
1.6 µ s  = FFT 
 2 
TSYM : symbol interval 4 µ s ( = TGI + TFFT )
TSHORT : short training sequence duration  T 
8µ s  = 10 ⋅ FFT 
 4 
TLONG : long training sequence duration 8µ s ( = [ TGI + 2 ⋅ TFFT ] )
PSDU : PHY sublayer service data units
MAC:Medium Access Control Ethernet ‫תת שכבת הקו בטכנולוגית‬
PHY:Physical Layer first and lowest layer in the seven-layer

Cyclic Prefix / Guard Interval

Consider one subcarrier. In the figure shown above, the blue line corresponds to the original sinusoidal where

one cycle of the sinusoidal is of duration 64 samples ( 3.2 µ s with 20MHz sampling), corresponding to subcarrier

of frequency 312.5 kHz .

 To add the cyclic prefix, 16 samples ( 0.8µ s ) from the end of the sinusoidal are appended to the beginning of
the sinusoidal (shown in green color). As can be seen, appending of cyclic prefix does not cause any discontinuities
and we still have the original sinusoidal of frequency 312.5 kHz
Further, after adding cyclic prefix, as the sinusoidal is of duration 4 µ s , we now have a bigger window for

choosing one period of the sinusoidal. Depending on which set of 3.2 µ s is chosen, the phase needs to be
corrected, but that will be a trivial operation in a typical implementation.
Conclusion: A sinusoidal added with a delayed version of the same sinusoidal does not affect the frequency of
the sinusoidal (it only affects the amplitude and phase).
the flipside of adding cyclic prefix is the loss in data rate as we are conveying redundant information.