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 4

Simulation of Models and BER Performances of

DWT-OFDM versus FFT-OFDM
Khaizuran Abdullah1 and Zahir M. Hussain2,3
1Electricaland Computer Engineering Department,
International Islamic University Malaysia,
2Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Kufa,
3School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT University,
1Malaysia
2Iraq
3Australia

1. Introduction
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a multicarrier modulation system.
The transmission channel is divided into a number of subchannel in which each subchannel is
assigned a subcarrier. Conventional OFDM systems use IFFT and FFT algorithms at the
transmitter and receiver respectively to multiplex the signals and transmit them
simultaneously over a number of subcarriers. The system employs guard intervals or cyclic
prefixes (CP) so that the delay spread of the channel becomes longer than the channel impulse
response (Peled & Ruiz, 1980; Bahai & Saltzberg, 1999; Kalet, 1994; Beek et al.,1999; Bingham,
1990; Nee and Prasad, 2000). The system must make sure that the cyclic prefix is a small
fraction of the per carrier symbol duration (Beek et al.,1999; Steendam & Moeneclaey, 1999).
The purpose of employing the CP is to minimize inter-symbol interference (ISI). However a CP
reduces the power efficiency and data throughput. The CP also has the disadvantage of
reducing the spectral containment of the channels (Ahmed, 2000; Dilmirghani & Ghavami,
2007, 2008). Due to these issues, an alternative method is to use the wavelet transform to
replace the IFFT and FFT blocks (Ahmed, 2000; Dilmirghani & Ghavami, 2007, 2008; Akansu &
Xueming, 1998; Sandberg & Tzannes, 1995). The wavelet transform is referred as Discrete
Wavelet Transform OFDM (DWT-OFDM). By using the transform, the spectral containment of
the channels is better since they are not using CP (Ahmed, 2000; Dilmirghani & Ghavami,
2007, 2008). The illustration of the superior subchannel containment attributes in wavelet has
been described in detailed by (Sandberg & Tzannes, 1995) as compared to Fourier. The wavelet
transform also employs Low Pass Filter (LPF) and High Pass Filter (HPF) operating as
Quadrature Mirror Filters satisfying perfect reconstruction and orthonormal bases properties.
It uses filter coefficients as approximate and detail in LPF and HPF respectively. The
approximated coefficients is sometimes referred to as scaling coefficients, whereas, the detailed
is referred to wavelet coefficients (Abdullah et al., 2009; Weeks, 2007). In some literatures, these
two filters are also called subband coding since the signals are divided into sub-signals of low
and high frequencies respectively. The purpose of this chapter is to show the simulation study
of using the Matrices Laboratory (MATLAB) on the wavelet based OFDM particularly DWT-

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58 Discrete Wavelet Transforms: Algorithms and Applications

OFDM as alternative substitutions for Fourier based OFDM. MATLAB is preferred for this
approach because it offers very powerful matrices calculation with wide range of enriched
toolboxes and simulation tools. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study on the
descriptive procedures of simulations using MATLAB with regards of flexible transformed
models in an OFDM system, especially when dealing with wavelet transform. Therefore, this
chapter is divided into three main sections: section 2 will explain conventional FFT-OFDM,
section 3 will describe in detail the models for DWT-OFDM, and section 4 will discuss the Bit
Error rate (BER) result regarding those two transformed platforms, DWT-OFDM versus FFT-
OFDM.

2. Fourier-based OFDM
A typical block diagram of an OFDM system is shown in Figure 1. The inverse and forward
blocks can be FFT-based or DWT-based OFDM.

Fig. 1. A Typical model of an OFDM transceiver with inverse and forward transformed
blocks which can be substituted as FFT-OFDM or DWT-OFDM.
The system model for FFT-based OFDM will not be discussed in detail as it is well known in
the literature. Thus, we merely present a brief description about it. The data dk is first being
processed by a constellation mapping. M-ary QAM modulator is used for this work to map
the raw binary data to appropriate QAM symbols. These symbols are then input into the
IFFT block. This involves taking N parallel streams of QAM symbols (N being the number of
sub-carriers used in the transmission of the data) and performing an IFFT operation on this
parallel stream. The output in discrete time domain is as follows:

N 1 n
1 j 2 i
X k (n) 
N
 Xm (i )e N (1)
i 0

Where xk(n) | 0 ≤ n ≤ N −1, is a sequence in the discrete time domain and Xm(i) | 0 ≤ i ≤ N −
1 are complex numbers in the discrete frequency domain. The cyclic prefix (CP) is lastly
added before transmission to minimize the inter-symbol interference (ISI). At the receiver,
the process is reversed to obtain the decoded data. The CP is removed to obtain the data in
the discrete time domain and then processed to FFT for data recovery. The output of the FFT
in the frequency domain is as follows:

N 1 n
j 2 i
U m (i )   U k ( n )e N (2)
i 0

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Simulation of Models and BER Performances of DWT-OFDM versus FFT-OFDM 59

3. Wavelet-based OFDM
As mentioned in the previous section, the inverse and forward block transforms are flexible
and can be substituted with FFT or DWT-OFDM. We have discussed briefly about FFT-
OFDM. Thus, this section will describe wavelet based OFDM particularly about DWT-
OFDM transceiver. This section is divided into three parts: a description of the DWT-OFDM
transmitter and receiver models as well as the Perfect Reconstruction properties’ discussion.

3.1 Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) transmitter

From Figure 1, it is obvious that the transmitter first uses a 16 QAM digital modulator which
maps the serial bits d into the OFDM symbols Xm, within N parallel data stream Xm(i) where
Xm(i) |0 ≤ i ≤ N − 1. The main task of the transmitter is to perform the discrete wavelet
modulation by constructing orthonormal wavelets. Each Xm(i) is first converted to serial
representation having a vector xx which will next be transposed into CA as shown in details
as in Figure 2. This means that CA not only its imaginary part has inverting signs but also its
form is changed to a parallel matrix. Then, the signal is up-sampled and filtered by the LPF
coefficients or namely as approximated coefficients. This coefficients are also called scaling
coefficients. Since our aim is to have low frequency signals, the modulated signals xx
perform circular convolution with LPF filter whereas the HPF filter also perform the
convolution with zeroes padding signals CD respectively. Note that the HPF filter contains
detailed coefficients or wavelet coefficients. Different wavelet families have different filter
length and values of approximated and detailed coefficients. Both of these filters have to
satisfy orthonormal bases in order to operate as wavelet transform. The number of CA and
CD depends on the OFDM subcarriers N. Samples of this processing signals CA and CD that
pass through this block model is shown in Figure 4. The above mentioned signals are
simulated using MATLAB command [Xk] = idwt(CA;CD;wv) where wv is the type of wavelet
family.

Fig. 2. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)-OFDM transmitter model.

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60 Discrete Wavelet Transforms: Algorithms and Applications

The detailed and approximated coefficients must be orthogonal and normal to each other.
By assigning g as LPF filter coefficients and h as HPF filter coefficients, the orthonormal
bases can be satisfied via four possible ways (Weeks, 2007): <g, g*>= 1, <h, h*>= 1, <g, h*>= 0
and <h, g*>= 0. The symbol * indicates its conjugate, and the symbol < , > is referring to the
dot product. The result which yields to 1 is related to the normal property whereas the
result yielding to 0 is for orthogonal property accordingly.

Fig. 3. The processed signals of one symbol DWT-OFDM system using bior5.5 in DWT
transmitter. Top: data CA, Middle: data CD, Bottom: data Xk, corresponding to Figure 2.
Both filters are also assumed to have perfect reconstruction property. The input and output
of the two filters are expected to be the same. A further discussion can be found in section
3.3.

3.2 Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) receiver

The DWT receiver is the reverse process which is simulated using the MATLAB command
[ca; cd] = dwt(Uk;wv). The receiver system model that processes the data ca, cd and Uk is
shown in Figure 4. The parameter wv is to indicate the wavelet family that is used in this
simulation. Uk is the front-end receiver data. This data is decomposed into two filters, high
and low pass filters corresponding to detailed and approximated coefficients accordingly.
The ca signal which is the output of the approximated coefficients or low pass filter will
finally be processed to the QAM demodulator for data recovery. To perform that operation,
data is first transposed before converting into parallel representation. The output Um(i) is
passed to QAM demodulator. The index i depends on the number of OFDM subcarriers.
The data cd is explained next. Due to the effect of CD data generated in the transmitter, Uk
has some zeroes elements which is decomposed as the detailed coefficients. The signal
output of these coefficients is cd. Comparing to ca, the cd signal is discarded because it does
not contain any useful information instead. Samples of this processing signals that pass
through the DWT-OFDM receiver model is shown in Figure 5.

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Simulation of Models and BER Performances of DWT-OFDM versus FFT-OFDM 61

Fig. 4. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)-OFDM receiver model.

Fig. 5. The processed signals of one symbol DWT-OFDM system using bior5.5 in DWT
receiver. Top: data ca. Middle: data cd. Bottom: data Uk, corresponding to Figure 4.

3.3 Perfect reconstruction

A block diagram of perfect reconstruction (PR) system operation is illustrated in Figure 6.
The PR property is performed by a two-channel filter bank which is represented by the LPF

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62 Discrete Wavelet Transforms: Algorithms and Applications

and HPF. The first level of analysis filter in the receiver part can be folded and the decimator
and the expander are cancelled out by each other.

Fig. 6. A simple and modified model of two-channel filter bank illustrating a perfect
reconstruction property with the superscript number is referring to the steps.
To satisfy a perfect reconstruction operation, the output Yk(i) is expected to be the same as
Xk(i). With the exception of a time delay, the input can be considered as Yk(i) = Xk(i-n) where
n can be substituted as 1 to describe this simple task. The steps to perform the mathematical
operation of PR can be summarized as follows (Weeks, 2007):
1. Selecting the filter coefficients for ga, i.e., a and b. Thus, ga = {a; b}.
2. ha is a reversed version of ga with every other value negated. Thus, ha = {b;−a}. If the
system has 4 filter coefficients with ga = {a; b; c; d}, then ha = {d;−c; b;−a}.
3. hs is the reversed version of ga, thus hs = {b; a}.
4. gs is also a reversed version of ha, therefore gs = {−a; b}.
The above steps can be rewritten as follows:

ga ={a,b}, ha={b,-a}, hs={b,a}, gs={-a,b} (3)

Considering that the input with delay are applied to ha and ga in Figure 4, then the output of
these filters are

Zk(i) = b(Xk(i) − a(Xk(i-1)) (4)

Wk(i) = a(Xk(i) + b(Xk(i-1)) (5)

Considering also that Zk(i) and Wk(i) are delayed by 1, then i can be replaced by (i-1) as
follows

Zk(i-1) = a(Xk(i-1) + b(Xk(i-2)) (6)

Wk(i-1) = b(Xk(i-1) − a(Xk(i-2)) (7)

The output Yk(i) can be written as

Yk(i) = gsZk(i) + hsWk(i) (8)

or,

Yk(i) = −aZk(i) + bZk(i-1) + bWk(i) + aWk(i-1) (9)

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Simulation of Models and BER Performances of DWT-OFDM versus FFT-OFDM 63

Substituting equations (5), (6), (7) and (8) into (9) yields to

Yk(i) = 2(a2 + b2)Xk(i-1) (10)

The output Yk(i) is the same as the input Xk(i) except that it is delayed by 1 if we substitute
the coefficient factor 2(a2 +b2) by 1. The PR condition is satisfied.

4. Simulation results
Simulation variables and their matrix values are shown in Table I. The number of samples
for the subcarriers N is 64, and the number of samples for the symbols ns is 1000. Data is
similar between FFT and DWT OFDM in all parameters except the multiplexed one. For
DWT-OFDM, it is required the transmitted signal to have double the data of FFT-OFDM.
This is due to the fact that the DWT transmitter has zeroes padding component. An element
value in the table that has a multiplier is referred to its matrix representation of row and
column. If the element has 64 x 1000, it means that it has 64 numbers of rows and 1000
numbers of columns.

Variables and Parameters FFT-OFDM DWT-OFDM

Minimum Subcarriers 64 64
requirement OFDM symbols 1000 1000
input binary generated 64 x 1000 64 x 1000
parallel transmitted data 64 x 1000 64 x 1000
Transmitter
serial transmitted data 1 x 64000 1 x 64000
multiplexed data transmitted 64000 x 1 128000 x 1
multiplexed data received 64000 x 1 128000 x 1
serial received data 1 x 64000 1 x 64000
Receiver
parallel received data 64 x 1000 64 x 1000
output binary recovered 64 x 1000 64 x 1000

Table 1. Simulation variables and their matrix values.

The curves in Figure 8 could have been better if we used more number of samples for the
symbols. However, this yields longer time of running the simulations. Other variables are
listed according to their use as in Figures 1, 2 and 3. Figure 7 shows the OFDM symbols in
time domain for the two transformed platforms FFT and DWT. Some of the simulation
parameters related to this figure are: the OFDM symbol period To = 9 ms, the total
simulation time t = 10 × To = 90 ms, the sampling frequency fs = 71.11 kHz, the carriers
spacing ΔN = 1.11 kHz and the bandwidth B = ΔN × 64 = 71.11 kHz. Thus, the simulation
satisfied the Nyquist criterion where fs < 2B. Both platforms used the same parameters. It is
interesting to observe that the DWT-OFDM symbol is less in term of the mean of amplitude
vectors as compared to FFT-OFDM. The mean of FFT is 1.4270, whereas, the mean of DWT
is -9.667E-04. This is due to the fact that zero - padding was performed in the DWT

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64 Discrete Wavelet Transforms: Algorithms and Applications

Fig. 7. An OFDM symbol in time domain: FFT-OFDM (Top), DWT-OFDM (Bottom).

Fig. 8. BER performance for DWT-OFDM.

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Simulation of Models and BER Performances of DWT-OFDM versus FFT-OFDM 65

(transmitter) system model. As a result, most samples in the middle of DWT-OFDM symbol
is almost zeroes. The DWT-OFDM performance can be observed from Figure 8. The wavelet
families Biorthogonal and Daubechies are compared with FFT-OFDM. It is shown that
bior5.5 is superior among all others. It outperforms FFT and Daubechies by about 2 dB and
bior3.3 by 8 dB at 0.001 BER.

5. Conclusions
Simulation approaches using MATLAB for wavelet based OFDM, particularly in DWT-
OFDM as alternative substitutions for Fourier based OFDM are presented. Conventional
OFDM systems use IFFT and FFT algorithms at the transmitter and receiver respectively to
multiplex the signals and transmit them simultaneously over a number of subcarriers. The
system employs guard intervals or cyclic prefixes so that the delay spread of the channel
becomes longer than the channel impulse response. The system must make sure that the
cyclic prefix is a small fraction of the per carrier symbol duration. The purpose of employing
the CP is to minimize inter-symbol interference (ISI). However a CP reduces the power
efficiency and data throughput. The CP also has the disadvantage of reducing the spectral
containment of the channels. Due to these issues, an alternative method is to use the wavelet
transform to replace the IFFT and FFT blocks. The wavelet transform is referred as Discrete
Wavelet Transform OFDM (DWT-OFDM). By using the transform, the spectral containment
of the channels is better since they are not using CP. The wavelet based OFDM (DWT-
OFDM) is assumed to have ortho-normal bases properties and satisfy the perfect
reconstruction property. We use different wavelet families particularly, Biorthogonal and
Daubechies and compare with conventional FFT-OFDM system. BER performances of both
OFDM systems are also obtained. It is found that the DWT-OFDM platform is superior as
compared to others as it has less error rate, especially using bior5.5 wavelet family.

6. References
Abdullah, K.; Mahmoud, S. & Hussain, Z.M. (2009). Performance Analysis of an Optimal
Circular 16-QAM for Wavelet Based OFDM Systems. International Journal of
Communications, Network and System Sciences (IJCNS), Vol. 2, No. 9, (December
2009), pp 836-844, ISSN 1913-3715.
Ahmed, N. (2000). Joint Detection Strategies for Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing. Dissertation for Master of Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas.
pp. 1-51, April.
Akansu, A. N. & Xueming, L. (1998). A Comparative Performance Evaluation of DMT
(OFDM) and DWMT (DSBMT) Based DSL Communications Systems for Single and
Multitone Interference, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on
Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, vol. 6, pp. 3269 - 3272, May.
Bahai, A. R. S. & Saltzberg, B. R. (1999). Multi-Carrier Digital Communications - Theory and
Applications of OFDM. Kluwer Academic. ISBN: 0-306-46974-X 0-306-46296-6. New
York.
Baig, S. R.; Rehman, F. U. & Mughal, M. J. (2005). Performance Comparison of DFT, Discrete
Wavelet Packet and Wavelet Transforms in an OFDM Transceiver for Multipath
Fading Channel. 9th IEEE International Multitopic Conference, pp. 1-6, December.

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66 Discrete Wavelet Transforms: Algorithms and Applications

Bingham, J. A. C. (1990). Multicarrier Modulation for Data Transmission: An Idea Whose

Time Has Come. IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 28, no 5, pp. (5-14).
Dilmirghani, R. & Ghavami, M. (2007). Wavelet Vs Fourier Based UWB Systems, 18th IEEE
International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications,
pp.1-5, September.
Kalet, I. (1989). The multitone Channel. IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 37, No. 2,
(Feb 1989), pp. (119-124).
Mirghani, R. & Ghavami, M. (2008). Comparison between Wavelet-based and Fourier-based
Multicarrier UWB Systems. IET Communications, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. (353-358).
Nee, R. V. & Prasad, R. (2000). OFDM for Wireless Multimedia Communications, Boston: Artech
House. ISBN 0-89006-530-6.
Peled, A. & Ruiz, A. (1980). Frequency Domain Data Transmission Using Reduced
Computational Complexity Algorithms, Proceedings IEEE International
Conference on Acoustics, speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP 1980), Denver, pp.
964-967.
Sandberg, S. D. & Tzannes, M. A. (1995). Overlapped Discrete Multitone Modulation for
High Speed Copper Wire Communications. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in
Communications, vol. 13, no. 9, pp. (1571-1585).
Steendam, H. & Moeneclaey, M. (1999). Analysis and Optimization of the Performance of
OFDM on Frequency-Selective Time-Selective Fading Channels. IEEE Transactions
on Communications, Vol. 47, No. 12, (Dec 99), pp. (1811- 1819).
Van de Beek, J. J.; Dling, P.; Wilson, S. K. & Brjesson, P. O. (1999). Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing (OFDM), URSI Review of Radio Science 1996-1999, Oxford
Publishers.
Weeks, M. (2007). Digital Signal Processing Using Matlab and Wavelets, Infinity Science Press
LLC. ISBN-10: 0-7637-8422-2.

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 Discrete Wavelet Transforms - Algorithms and Applications
Edited by Prof. Hannu Olkkonen

ISBN 978-953-307-482-5
Hard cover, 296 pages
Publisher InTech
Published online 29, August, 2011
Published in print edition August, 2011

The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) algorithms have a firm position in processing of signals in several areas
of research and industry. As DWT provides both octave-scale frequency and spatial timing of the analyzed
signal, it is constantly used to solve and treat more and more advanced problems. The present book: Discrete
Wavelet Transforms: Algorithms and Applications reviews the recent progress in discrete wavelet transform
algorithms and applications. The book covers a wide range of methods (e.g. lifting, shift invariance, multi-scale
analysis) for constructing DWTs. The book chapters are organized into four major parts. Part I describes the
progress in hardware implementations of the DWT algorithms. Applications include multitone modulation for
ADSL and equalization techniques, a scalable architecture for FPGA-implementation, lifting based algorithm
for VLSI implementation, comparison between DWT and FFT based OFDM and modified SPIHT codec. Part II
addresses image processing algorithms such as multiresolution approach for edge detection, low bit rate
image compression, low complexity implementation of CQF wavelets and compression of multi-component
images. Part III focuses watermaking DWT algorithms. Finally, Part IV describes shift invariant DWTs, DC
lossless property, DWT based analysis and estimation of colored noise and an application of the wavelet
Galerkin method. The chapters of the present book consist of both tutorial and highly advanced material.
Therefore, the book is intended to be a reference text for graduate students and researchers to obtain state-
of-the-art knowledge on specific applications.

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OFDM versus FFT-OFDM, Discrete Wavelet Transforms - Algorithms and Applications, Prof. Hannu Olkkonen
(Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-307-482-5, InTech, Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/discrete-wavelet-
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