OFDMA_ UL_LTE Tuần 01

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III. MULTIPLE ACCESS: OFDMA – UL

The LTE air interface is based on OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
Access) multiple-access technology (allow resources such as freq, time, its up to the Multiple
Accesss technologies in Fig 1, to be shared between a group of users[6]) in the DL and a closely
related technology known as Single- Carrier Frequency Division Multiplexing (SC- FDM) in the
UL. The use of OFDM provides significant advantages (??? Such as high spectral efficiency,
adaptability for broadband data transmission, resistance to intersymbol interference caused
by multipath fading, support for MIMO, frequency-domain techniques like frequency-
selective scheduling) over alternative multiple- access technologies and signal sharp departure
(???) from the past.[5]

FDMA TDMA CDMA OFDMA

Resouce Allocation RF Carriers Time Slots Codes Subcarriers
Example system AMPS (1G) GSM (2G) (UMTS 3G) LTE (4G)

Why does LTE select OFDMA and its single-carrier counterpart SC-FDM [3]?

 The main reasons are:

- Robustness to the multipath fading channel (transferred in parallel, cyclic prefix)
- High spectral efficiency (no guard band,)
- Low-complexity implementation (to create orthogonal subcarriers simply using LO,
phase shift pi/2)
- The ability to provide flexible transmission bandwidths (= Number of resource
blocks # Channel bandwidth) (1.4MHz/ 3Mhz/ 5Mhz/ 10Mhz…20Mhz)
- Support advanced features such as frequency-selective scheduling (allocate users
in time & frequency domain), MIMO transmission, and interference coordination.

LTE key parameters

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**The resource block represents the smallest entity for resource assignment so terminal
subscribers can be assigned one RB or multiples of it

A multi-user collaborative so several users can share the same resource block assignment

The peak data rates are really more theoretical values, not likely to be achieved in real life

What is OFDMA?

 An OFDMA signal is based upon a set of orthogonal subcarriers [3]. In an OFDMA

system, the available bandwidth is subdivided into multiple subcarriers and each of
subcarriers can be independently modulated. Resource are shared by allocating a
subset of the subcarriers to each user [3] Typically, you have several hundred
subcarriers in a certain BW and they have a constant spacing of some kHz. Multiple
subcarriers in OFDMA are transmitting in parallel, each one can transmit with a lower
symbol rate & improving robustness of the technology for mobile propagation
conditions (cyclic prefix – TD)

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OFDMA signal generation chain

- OFDMA signal generation is based on Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT)

operation on transmitter side: The modulated data symbols which are going to
transmitted through IFFT block (on transmitter side in OFDM system), the cyclic prefix
is appended as guard interval to protect from ISI (Inter Symbol Interference)
- On the receiver side, using FFT to receive the symbols again & convert again in
the frequency domain (FD).

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What differences between OFDM and OFDMA?

In LTE, why did DL use OFDMA?

Inverse Problem: If Uplink use OFDMA => what happen?

 The battery of UE reduces quickly
 Because one of the drawbacks of OFDMA is its relatively to high Peak to Average
Power Ratio (PAPR) generated by summing large numbers of subcarriers.

PAPR increase =>requires high-resolution digital analog & Power Amplifier (PA) increase
=> Power Efficiency reduces => Impact upon battery of devices (UE). While UE is not
continuously charged, eNBs are always connected to the power supply. => it’s better
choice to use OFDMA for DL (from eNB to UE) & select another transmission technique
for the uplink.

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OFDMA time-frequency multiplexing

The time-frequency representation of

OFDM is designed to provide high
levels of flexibility in allocating both
spectra and the time frames for
transmission. The spectrum flexibility
in LTE provides not only a variety of
frequency bands but also a scalable
set of bandwidths. LTE also provides a
short frame size of 10 ms in order to
minimize latency and better channel
estimation, allowing timely
feedbacks necessary for link
adaptations to be provided to the
base station