MAHARAJA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY THANDAVAPURA

NH 766, Nanjangud Taluk, Mysuru- 571 302

(An ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 21001:2018 Certified Institution)
(Affiliated to VTU, Belagavi and approved by AICTE, New Delhi)
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

WIRELESS & CELLULAR COMMUNICATION – 18EC81

MODULE 4: LTE-4g

CHAPTER 1 – key enablers for lte-4g

OFDM, SC-FDE, SC-FDMA, Channel dependent multiuser resource scheduling, Multi-
antenna techniques, Flat IP architecture, LTE network architecture (Text 1 Sec 4.1)

CHAPTER 2 – multi-carrier modulation

Multicarrier concepts, OFDM basics, OFDM in LTE, Timing and frequency synchronization,
Peak to average ratio, SC-Frequency domain equalization, Computational complexity
advantages of OFDM and SC-FDE (Text 1, Sec 3.1 – 3.7)

MEGHANA M N
Assistant Professor
Dept. Of ECE
MIT, Thandavapura
WIRELESS & CELLULAR COMMUNICATION – 18EC81 MODULE 4

MODULE 4 – LTE – 4G
CHAPTER 1 – KEY ENABLERS FOR LTE 4G

KEY ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES AND FEATURES OF LTE *****

Key Enabling Technologies and Features of LTE are
1. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
2. SC-FDE and SC-FDMA
3. Channel Dependent Multi-user Resource Scheduling
4. Multi-antenna Techniques
5. IP-Based Flat Network Architecture

1. ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (OFDM) ***

Q.: Explain the advantages of OFDM led to its selection for LTE. [8M] June2019, Dec2020
• 3G systems are based on CDMA technology.
Advantage: CDMA Performs remarkably well for low data rate communications, where a large number of
users can be multiplexed to achieve high system capacity.
Limitation: CDMA cannot able to handle the large bandwidth required for high-speed applications and
hence design becomes complex.
• OFDM has emerged as a technology for achieving high data rates and is widely used in Wi-Fi.

➢ The following advantages of OFDM led to its selection for LTE: *****
1. Elegant solution to multipath interference:
• The main aim is to achieve high Bit-rate transmissions in a wireless channel the critical challenge is Inter
Symbol Interference (ISI) caused by multi path.
• At high data rates the symbol time is shorter; hence it only takes a small delay to cause ISI.
• OFDM is a multicarrier modulation technique which can be used to eliminate the ISI effect.
• In OFDM, the subcarriers are orthogonal to one another over the symbol duration.
• Thereby instead of using non-over lapping subcarrier, subcarrier can be overlapped over a channel which
eliminates ISI.
2. Reduced computational complexity:
• OFDM can be easily implemented using Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) at the sender side and Inverse Fast
Fourier Transforms (IFFT) at the receiving end.
• The computational complexity of OFDM = (B log B Tm), where B is the bandwidth and Tm is the delay

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spread.
• Reduced complexity is mainly used the downlink as it simplifies receiver processing and thus reduces mobile
device cost and power consumption.
3. Graceful degradation of performance under excess delay:
• The performance of an OFDM system degrades gracefully as the delay spread exceeds the designed value.
• OFDM is well suited for adaptive modulation and coding, which allows the system to make the best use of the available
channel conditions.
4. Exploitation of frequency diversity:
• OFDM provides the range of frequencies to subcarriers in the frequency domain, which can provide
robustness against errors.
• OFDM also allows scaling of channel bandwidth without affecting the hardware design of the base station
and the mobile station.
5. Enables efficient multi-access scheme:
• OFDM can be used as a multi-access scheme by partitioning different subcarriers among multiple users.
• This scheme is referred as OFDMA and is used in LTE standard.
6. Robust against narrowband interference:
• OFDM is relatively robust against narrowband interference, since such interference affects only a fraction
of the subcarriers.
7. Suitable for coherent demodulation:
• It is relatively easy to do pilot-based channel estimation in OFDM systems, which renders them suitable
for coherent demodulation schemes that are more power efficient.
8. Facilitates use of MIMO:
• MIMO refers to a collection of signal processing techniques that use multiple antennas at both the
transmitter and receiver to improve system performance.
• For MIMO techniques to be effective, it is required that the channel conditions are such that the multipath
delays do not cause ISI interference.
• OFDM converts a frequency selective broad band channel into several narrowband flat fading channels
where the MIMO models and techniques work well.
9. Efficient support of broadcast services:
• It is possible to operate an OFDM network as a Single Frequency Network (SFN).
• This allows broadcast signals from different cells to combine over the air and which enhances the received
signal power, thereby enabling higher data rate broadcast transmissions.

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➢ Disadvantages of OFDM:
• Peak-to-Average Ratio (PAR): OFDM has high PAR, which causes non-linearity and clipping distortion
when passed through an RF amplifier.
• High PAR increases the cost of the transmitter.
• OFDM is tolerated in the downlink as part of the design, for the uplink LTE selected a variation of OFDM
that has a lower peak-to- average ratio.
• The modulation used for the uplink is called Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access. (SC-
FDMA).

2. SC-FDE and SC-FDMA

➢ Single-Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE)
• It is a single-carrier (SC) modulation combined with frequency-domain equalization (FDE).
• It is an alternative approach to inter symbol interference (ISI) mitigation.
• It uses QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) rather than FFT/IFFT used in OFDM to send data.
• SC-FDE retains all the advantages of OFDM such as multipath resistance and low complexity, while having
a low peak-to-average ratio of 4-5dB.
• It keeps the mobile station cost down and the battery life up.
• LTE incorporated a SC-FDE as a power efficient transmission scheme for the uplink.

➢ Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access( SC-FDMA)

• A multi-user version of SC-FDE, called SC-FDMA.
• The uplink of LTE implements uses to SC-FDMA, which allows multiple users to use parts of the frequency
spectrum.
• SC-FDMA closely resembles OFDMA and also preserves the PAR properties.
• The drawback of SC-FDE is increases the complexity of the transmitter and the receiver.

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3. CHANNEL DEPENDENT MULTI-USER RESOURCE SCHEDULING

• Resource scheduling is mainly used in OFDM - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing and OFDMA
- Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access.

Figure 1: Resource mapping in OFDMA

• The OFDMA scheme used in LTE provides more flexibility with respect to channel resources allocation.
• OFDMA allows allocation in both time and frequency and it is possible to design algorithms to allocate
resources in a flexible and dynamic manner to meet arbitrary throughput, delay and other requirements.
• The standard supports dynamic, channel-dependent scheduling to enhance overall system capacity.
• In OFDM, It is possible to allocate subcarriers among users in such a way that the overall capacity is
increased.
• Allocation of subcarriers among users is called as frequency selective multiuser scheduling, which focuses
on transmitting power in each user’s best channel portion.
• In OFDMA, frequency selective scheduling can be combined with multi-user time domain scheduling.
• Capacity gains are also obtained by adapting the modulation and coding to the instantaneous signal-to-
noise ratio conditions for each user subcarrier.
• For high-mobility users, OFDMA can be used to achieve frequency diversity by coding and interleaving
across subcarriers.
• Frequency diverse scheduling is best suited for control signaling and delay sensitive services.

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4. MULTI-ANTENNA TECHNIQUES
• The LTE standard provides multi-antenna solutions to improve link robustness, system capacity, and
spectral efficiency.
• Multi-antenna techniques supported in LTE include:
1. Transmit diversity 2. Beam forming
3. Spatial multiplexing 4. Multi user MIMO

4.1 TRANSMIT DIVERSITY

• Diversity means send copies of the same signal by using two or more communication channels with
different characteristics. This is a technique to prevent multipath fading in the wireless channel.
f

D(1) Transmit Antenna 1

Data Symbols D(0)
t
D(1) D(0) f

D(0)* Transmit Antenna 2

D(1)*
t

Figure 2: Transmit diversity (SFBC)

• LTE transmit diversity is based on space-frequency block coding (SFBC) techniques.
• Transmit diversity is used in common downlink channels that cannot make use of channel-dependent
scheduling.
• It increases system capacity and cell range.

4.2 BEAMFORMING
• Multiple antennas in LTE may also be used beamforming technique to transmit the beam in the direction
of the receiver and away from interference, thereby improving the received signal-to-interference ratio.
• It can provide significant improvements in coverage range, capacity, reliability, and battery life.
• It can also be useful in providing angular information for user tracking.
• LTE supports beamforming in the downlink.

4.3 SPATIAL MULTIPLEXING

• In spatial multiplexing, multiple independent streams can be transmitted in parallel over multiple antennas
and can be separated at the receiver using multiple receive chains through appropriate signal processing.

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• Spatial multiplexing provides data rate and capacity gains proportional to the number of antennas used.
• It works well under good SNR and light load conditions.
LTE standard supports spatial multiplexing with up to four transmits antennas and four receiver antennas.

MIMO with Transmit diversity MIMO with Spatial Multiplexing

Figure 3: Comparison of MIMO with Diversity and spatial multiplexing

4.4 MULTI-USER MIMO

• Since spatial multiplexing requires multiple transmit antennas, it is currently not supported in the uplink
due to complexity and high cost.
• Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) allows multiple users in the uplink, each with a single antenna, to transmit
using the same frequency and time.
• The signals from the different MU-MIMO users are separated at the base station receiver using accurate
channel state information of each user obtained through uplink reference signals that are orthogonal
between users.

Figure 4: Comparison between Single and multiuser MIMO

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5. IP-BASED FLAT LTE SAE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE****

Q.: Explain flat LTE SAE architecture or explain 3GPP evolution toward a flat LTE SAE architecture
[8M] June2019, Aug2020
• Apart from air interface the other aspects of LTE is Flat Network Architecture. Flat implies fewer nodes
and less hierarchical structure for the network which reduces the infrastructure cost.
• It also means fewer interfaces and protocol-related processing and reduced inter-operability testing, which
lowers the development cost.
• Fewer nodes also allow better optimization of radio interface, merging of some control plane protocols, and
short session start-up time.

• Figure 5 shows how the 3GPP network architecture evolution.

Figure 5: 3GPP evolution toward a flat LTE SAE architecture

➢ Flat LTE architecture description
• 3GPP Release 6 architecture has four network elements in the data path: Base Station (BS), Radio Network
Controller (RNC), Serving GPRS Service Node (SGSN), and Gateway GRPS Service Node (GGSN).
• Release 7 introduced a direct tunnel option from the RNC to GGSN, which eliminated SGSN from the
data path.
• LTE on the other hand, will have only two network elements in the data path: the enhanced Node-Bore
(eNode-B) and a System Architecture Evolution Gateway (SAE-GW).
• LTE merges the BS and RNC functionality into a single unit.

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• The control path includes a functional entity called the Mobility Management Entity (MME), which
provides control plane functions related to subscriber, mobility, and session management.
• The MME and SAE-GW collocated in a single entity called the Access Gateway (A-GW).
• A key aspect of the LTE flat architecture is that all services, including voice, are supported on the IP
packet network using IP protocols.
• Whereas previous 2G and 3G systems had a separate circuit-switched sub-network for supporting voice
with their own Mobile Switching Centers (MSC) and transport networks.
• LTE focuses on a single Evolved Packet Core (EPC) over which all services are supported, which could
provide huge operational and infrastructure cost savings.
• However, LTE has been designed for IP services with a flat architecture, due to backwards compatibility
reasons certain legacy, non-IP aspects of the 3GPP architecture such as the GPRS tunnelling protocol and
PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) still exists within the LTE network architecture.

6. LTE NETWORK ARCHITECTURE/END-END ARCHITECTURE OF EVOLVED

PACKET CORE*****
Q.: Explain LTE network architecture EPC in LTE or Write a block diagram of end-to-end
architecture of EPC and discuss the elements of EPC. [8M] Nov2020, Aug2020, Dec2019
• The core network design by 3GPP Release 8 to support LTE is called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
• EPC is designed to provide a high capacity, reduced latency and supports all IPs.
• Flat architecture reduces cost and supports advanced real-time operations. It is designed not only to support
LTE, but also provide interworking with legacy 2G GERAN and 3G UTRAN networks connected via
SGSN.
➢ Functions of LTE architecture
• It includes access control, packet routing and transfer, mobility management, security, radio resource
management and network management.
➢ LTE architectural elements
The EPC includes four new elements:
1. Serving Gateway (SGW)
2. Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW)
3. Mobility Management Entity (MME)
4. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

• Figure 6 shows the end-to-end architecture of EPC used in LTE.

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Figure 6: Evolved Packet Core architecture

1. SERVING GATEWAY (SGW)

• SGW terminates the interface toward the 3GPP radio access networks.
• It acts as an interface between the RAN and core network, and manages user plane mobility.
• SGW is incorporated in downlink packet buffering and initiation of network-triggered service request
procedures.
• Other functions of SGW include:
- Lawful interception, packet routing and forwarding.
- Transport level packet marking in the uplink and the downlink.
- Accounting support for user and inter-operator charging.

2. PACKET DATA NETWORK GATEWAY (PGW)

• It controls IP data services, does routing, allocates IP addresses, enforces policy, and provides access for
non-3GPP access networks.
• The PGW acts as the termination point of the EPC toward other Packet Data Networks (PDN) such as the
Internet, private IP network, or the IMS network providing end-user services.
• It serves as an anchor point for sessions toward external PDN and provides functions such as user IP address
allocation, policy enforcement, packet filtering, and charging support.
• Policy enforcement includes rules for resource allocation to control data rate, QoS, and usage.
• Packet filtering functions include deep packet inspection for application detection.

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3. MOBILITY MANAGEMENT ENTITY (MME)

• The MME performs the signaling and control functions to manage the user terminal access to network
connections, assignment of network resources.
• Mobility management function such as idle mode location tracking, paging, roaming, and handovers.
• MME controls all control plane functions related to subscriber and session management.
• The MME provides security functions such as providing temporary identities for user terminals, interacting
with Home Subscriber Server (HSS) for authentication, and negotiation of ciphering and integrity
protection algorithms.
• It is also responsible for selecting the appropriate serving and PDN gateways, and selecting legacy
gateways for handovers to other GERAN or UTRAN networks.
• MME manages thousands of eNode-B elements, which is one of the key differences from 2G or 3G.

4. POLICY AND CHARGING RULE’S FUNCTION (PCRF)

• It is a concatenation of Policy Decision Function (PDF) and Charging Rules Function (CRF).
• The PCRF interfaces with the PDN gateway and supports service data flow detection, policy enforcement,
and flow-based charging.

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MODULE – 4
CHAPTER 2: MULTICARRIER MODULATION
Module-4 covered by chapters 3 from the prescribed text book “Fundamentals of LTE” by
Arunabha Ghosh, Jan Zhang, Jefferey Andrews, Riaz Mohammed.

Chapter 3: Multicarrier Modulation:

▪ OFDM basics
▪ OFDM in LTE
▪ Timing and Frequency Synchronization
▪ Peak to Average Ratio(PAR)
▪ Single Carrier-Frequency Division Equalization(SC-FDE)

CHAPTER 2: MULTICARRIER MODULATION

3.1 Introduction

• Multicarrier modulation used in many of the most successful modern wireless systems,
including
o Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL).
o Wireless LANs (802.11a/g/n).
o Digital Video Broadcasting.
o Beyond 3C cellular technologies such as WiMAX and LTE.
• The common feature of multicarrier modulation techniques is the use of multiple parallel
subcarriers, invariably generated by the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT).
• The most common type of multicarrier modulation is Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM). Other examples Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT)

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3.2 The Multicarrier Concept

• The main purpose of using multicarrier modulation to achieve high data rates and mitigate
Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) in broadband channels.
• In order to have a channel that does not have ISI the symbol time 𝑇𝑠, has to be much larger than
the channel delay spread 𝜏 and transmission bandwidth less than coherence bandwidth (CB)
• Concept:
1. To achieve 𝑇𝑠 ≫ 𝜏, In multicarrier modulation divides the high-rate transmit bit stream into L
lower-rate sub-streams, where L is chosen so that each of the subcarriers has effective symbol
time 𝑇𝑠 𝐿 ≫ 𝜏 and is hence effectively ISI-free. These individual sub-streams can then be sent
over L parallel subcarriers, maintaining the total desired data rate.

2. The data rate on each of the subcarriers is much less than the total flat a rate, and so the
corresponding subcarrier bandwidth is much less than the total system bandwidth. The
number of sub-streams is chosen to ensure that each subcarrier has a bandwidth less than the
coherence bandwidth (CB) of the channel.

3.2.1 An Elegant Approach to Inter Symbol Interference:

• Multicarrier modulation divides the wideband incoming data stream into L narrow band sub-
streams.
• Each of which is then transmitted over a different orthogonal frequency subcarrier. The number
of sub-streams L is chosen to make the symbol time 𝑇𝑠 each sub-stream much greater than the
delay spread of 𝜏 the channel or, equivalently, to make the sub-stream bandwidth less than the
channel coherence bandwidth. This ensures that the sub-streams will not experience significant
ISI.
• A simple illustration of multicarrier transmitter and receiver is given in Fig 3.1 & 3.2
• Multicarrier transmitter& Receiver: In Fig 3.1 a high-rate data signal of rate ‘R’ bps and with a
pass bandwidth ‘B’ is broken into ‘L’ parallel sub-streams each with data rate ‘R/L’ and pass band
bandwidth ‘B/L’.
• After passing through the channel H(f), the received signal would appear as shown in Figure 3.3,
no subcarrier overlap since the subcarrier bandwidth very much smaller than the coherence
bandwidth CB, i,e. B/L << CB, then it can be ensured that each sub-carrier experiences
approximately fiat fading.
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• The mutually orthogonal signals can then be individually detected, as shown in Figure 3.2.

Figure 3.1: A basic multicarrier transmitter: a high-rate stream of R bps is broken into L parallel sub-
streams each with rate R/L and then multiplied by a different carrier frequency

Figure 3.2: A basic multicarrier receiver: each subcarrier is decoded separately, requiring L
independent receivers.

Figure 3.3 The transmitted multicarrier signal experiences approximately flat fading on each sub-
carrier since B/L ≪ CB, even though the overall channel experiences frequency selective fading, that is,
3

B > CB
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3.3 OFDM Basics (actual syllabus starts from here)

• OFDM employs the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to achieve ‘L’ RF radios path in both the
transmitter and receiver. IFFT are able to create a multitude of orthogonal subcarriers using just a
single radio.
3.2.1 Block Transmission with Guard Intervals:
• Grouping L data symbols into a block known as an OFDM symbol with a duration of T seconds.
Where T = LTS.
• Guard time Tg introduce in between OFDM symbol to keep independent of the others after going
through a wireless channel as shown below:

• Receiving a series of OFDM symbols, as long as the guard time Tg is larger than the delay spread of
the channel 𝜏, each OFDM symbol will only interfere with itself.

• OFDM transmissions allow ISI within an OFDM symbol. But by including a sufficiently large guard
band, it is possible to guarantee that there is no interference between subsequent OFDM symbols.
3.2.2 The Cyclic Prefix (CP)***
• The cyclic prefix acts as a buffer region or guard interval to protect the OFDM signals from ISI.

• The CP is obtained by taking the last 𝑣 samples from the length N block of OFDM symbols, and it is
appended at the start of the symbol block. As a result, the transmitted OFDM symbol block is of
length N + 𝑣 𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑖𝑛 fig 3.4 . For each OFDM symbol to be independent and to avoid any ISI
and ICI, the length 𝑣 of the CP should be at least equal to the channel order.

Figure 3.4 The OFDM Cyclic prefix

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• The cyclic prefix performs two main functions.

1. It provides a guard interval to eliminate ISI from the previous symbol.
2. It repeats the end of the symbol so the linear convolution of a frequency-selective multipath
channel can be modeled as circular convolution, which in turn may transform to the frequency
domain via a DFT. This approach accommodates simple frequency domain processing, such as
channel estimation and equalization.

• FFT/IFFT algorithms are used to realize OFDM in practice with reduced computational complexity.
• The IFFT operation at the transmitter allows all the subcarriers to be created in the digital domain,
and thus requires only a single radio to be used.
• In order for the IFFT/FFT to create an ISI-free channel, the channel must appear to provide a
circular convolution.
• If a cyclic prefix is added to the transmitted signal, as shown in Figure 3.4, then this creates a signal
that appears to be x[n]L, and so y[n] = x[n]⊛ h[n].
• If the maximum channel delay spread has a duration of 𝑣 +1 samples, then by adding a guard band
of at least 𝑣 samples between OFDM symbols, each OFDM symbol is made independent of those
coming before and after it, and so just a single OFDM symbol can be considered.
• Representing such an OFDM symbol in the time domain as a length L vector gives
𝑿 = [𝑥1,x2,𝑥3, … … … . . 𝑥𝐿,] (3.1)

• After applying a cyclic prefix of length 𝑣, the actual transmitted signal is

• The output of the channel is by definition𝑌𝑐𝑝, = ℎ ∗ 𝑋𝑐𝑝, where h is a length 𝑣 + 1 vector describing
the impulse response of the channel during the OFDM symbols.
• The output 𝑌𝑐𝑝 has samples = Length of OFDM symbol + Length of the channel response - 1
= (L + 𝑣) + (𝑣 + 1) - 1
= L + 2𝑣 samples.
• The first 𝑣 samples of 𝑌𝑐𝑝, contain interference from the preceding OFDM symbol, and so are
discarded. The last 𝑣 samples disperse into the subsequent OFDM symbol, and so also are
discarded. This leaves exactly L samples for the desired output ′𝑦 ′, which is precisely what is
required to recover the L data symbols embedded in x .
• These L samples of 𝑦 will be equivalent to 𝑦 = h⊛ x.
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• The circular convolution operation y[n] = x[n]⊛ h[n] as shown below figure 3.5.

Figure 3.5 The OFDM cyclic prefix creates a circular convolution at the receiver (signal y) even
though the actual channel causes a linear convolution.
• Due to the cyclic prefix 𝑦0 depends on 𝑥0 and the circularly wrapped values 𝑥𝐿−𝑣 … … 𝑥𝐿−1,That is:

• Channel output y to be decomposed into a simple multiplication of the channel frequency

response H = DFT {h} and the channel frequency domain input X = DFT{x}.
• The drawback of cyclic prefix need more bandwidth and power penalty.
• Since 𝑣 redundant symbols are sent, the required Bandwidth of OFDM in increase from
𝐿+𝑣
𝐵 𝑡𝑜 𝐵 and power penalty of 10𝑙𝑜𝑔 𝐿+𝑣
𝐿 10 𝐿

• In summary, the use of cyclic prefix entails data rate and power losses that are both
𝐿+𝑣
𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 =
𝐿
• The "wasted" power has increased importance in an interference-limited wireless system, since it
causes interference to neighboring users.
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3.2.3 Frequency Equalization:

• Equalization is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within a
received OFDM signal.
• Frequency domain equalizers (FEQs) have been applied extensively in multicarrier systems to
enhance transmission rate by reducing transmit redundancy in the form of guard interval.
• Received symbols to be estimated, the complex channel gains for each subcarrier must be known,
which corresponds to knowing the amplitude and phase of the subcarrier.
• After the FFT is performed, the data symbols are estimated using a one-tap frequency domain
equalizer, or FEQ, as
𝑌
𝑋̃𝑙 = 𝐻𝑙
𝑙

Where 𝐻𝑙 is the complex response of the channel at the frequency𝑓𝑐 + (𝑙 − 1)∆𝑓, and therefore it
both corrects the phase and equalizes the amplitude before the decision device.

3.2.5 An OFDM Block Diagram***[8M VTU QP 2019]

• The key steps in an OFDM communication system are briefly shown in Figure 3.6.

Figure 3.6: An OFDM system in vector notation. In OFDM, the encoding and decoding is done in the
frequency domain, where X, Y. and 𝑋̃ contain the L transmitted, received, and estimated data
symbols.

• Transmitter operations:
− Step 1: In OFDM, break a wideband signal of bandwidth 𝐵 into 𝐿 narrowband subcarriers each
of bandwidth 𝐵/𝐿 and each subcarrier experiences flat fading, or ISI-free communication, as
long as a cyclic prefix that exceeds the delay spread is used. The 𝐿 subcarriers for a given OFDM
symbol are represented by a vector 𝑋, which contains the L current symbols.
− Step 2: 𝐿 independent narrow band subcarriers are created digitally using an IFFT operation.
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− Step 3: IFFT/FFT decompose the ISI channel into orthogonal subcarriers, a cyclic prefix of
length 𝑣 must be appended after the IFFT operation. The resulting 𝐿 + 𝑣 symbols are then sent
in serial through the wideband channel.
• Receiver operations:
− At the receiver, the cyclic prefix is discarded, and the L received symbols are demodulated
using an FFT operation, which results in L data symbols, each of the form 𝑌𝑙 = 𝐻𝑙 𝑋𝑙 + 𝑁𝑙 for
subcarrier 𝑙.
− Each subcarrier can then be equalized via an FEQ by simply dividing by the complex channel
gain H[i] for that subcarrier. This results in 𝑋 = 𝑋 + 𝑁𝑙
𝑙 𝑙 𝐻𝑙

3.3 OFDM in LTE:

• LTE systems used as an example to brief time and frequency domain interpretations of OFDM.
• Figure 3.7 shows view of a pass band OFDM modulation engine. The inputs to this figure are L
independent QAM symbols (the vector X), and these L symbols are treated as separate subcarriers.

Figure 3.7: A close-up of the OFDM baseband to pass band transmitter.

• These L data-bearing symbols can be created from a bit stream by a symbol mapper and serial-to-
parallel convertor (S/P).
• The L-point IFFT then creates a time domain L-vector x that is cyclic extended to length L(1 + G),
where G is the fractional overhead. In LTE G 0.07 for the normal cyclic prefix and G = 0.25 for the
extended cyclic prefix.
• This longer vector is then parallel-to-serial (P/S) converted into a wideband digital signal that can
be amplitude modulated with a single radio at a carrier frequency of 𝑓𝑐 = 𝜔𝑐/2𝜋.
• The key OFDM parameters are summarized in table below
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Table 3.1 Summary of Key OFDM Parameters in LTE and Example Values for 10MHz

• For example, if 16QAM modulation was used (M = 16) with the normal cyclic prefix, the raw
(neglecting coding) data rate of this LTE system would be:

3.4 Timing and Frequency Synchronization in OFDM:*****[ 8M VTU QP 2020]

• Synchronization of an OFDM signal is required to find the symbol timing and carrier frequency
offset (CFO).
• In order to demodulate an OFDM signal, there are two important synchronization tasks that need
to be performed by the receiver
• First, the timing offset of the symbol and the optimal timing instants need to be determined. This
is referred to as timing synchronization.
• Second, the receiver must align its carrier frequency as closely as possible with the transmitted
carrier frequency. This is referred to as frequency synchronization.
• Figure 3.8 shows a representation of an OFDM symbol in time (top) and frequency (bottom).
• In the time domain, the IFFT effectively modulates each data symbol onto a unique carrier
frequency.
• In Figure 3.8 only two of the carriers are shown: the actual transmitted signal is the
10

superposition of all the individual carriers.

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Figure 3.8 OFDM synchronization in time (top) and frequency (bottom). Here, two subcarriers in
the time domain and eight subcarriers in the frequency domain are shown, where fc = 10MHz and
the subcarrier spacing Δ𝑓 = 1Hz.
• In above figure time window size is T = 1 𝜇𝑠𝑒𝑐 and it has frequency response of each subcarrier
becomes a "sine function with zero crossings every 1/T = 1MHz. This frequency response is shown
for L = 8 subcarriers in the right part of Figure 3.8.
• The challenge of timing and frequency synchronization: If the timing window is slid to the left or
right, a unique phase change will be introduced to each of the sub-carriers. It result carrier
frequency is misaligned by some amount𝛿, then some of the desired energy is lost, and it is referred
to as Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI).
• The following two subsections will provide solution good timing and frequency synchronization
algorithms for LTE systems. Synchronization is one of the most challenging problems in OFDM
implementation.

3.4.1 Timing Synchronization:

• The effect of timing errors in symbol synchronization is relaxed in OFDM due to the presence of a
cyclic prefix.
• If the cyclic prefix length Ng is equivalent to the length of the channel impulse response 𝑣, successive
OFDM symbols can be decoded ISI free.
• The tolerable a timing offset of 𝜏 seconds without any degradation in performance as long as 0
≪ 𝜏 ≪ ( 𝑇𝑔− 𝑇𝑚 ), where 𝑇𝑔the guard is time (cyclic prefix duration) and 𝑇𝑚 is the maximum channel
delay spread.
• As long as 𝜏 remains constant, it includes a fixed phase offset and it can be corrected by the FEQ
11

without loss or performance.

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• This acceptable range of 𝜏 is referred to as the timing synchronization margin, and is shown in
Figure 3.9.

Figure 3.9 Timing synchronization margin.

• If the timing offset 𝜏 is not within this window 0 ≪ 𝜏 ≪ ( − 𝑇𝑚 ), ISI occurs. The desired energy is
lost while interference from the preceding symbol is included in the receive window. For both of
these scenarios, the SNR loss can be approximated by
𝜏 )2
∆(𝜏) ≈ −2 (
𝐿𝑇𝑠
• Important observations from this expression are

o SNR decreases quadratically with the timing offset.

o Longer OFDM symbols are increasingly immune from timing offset, that is, more subcarriers
helps.
o Since in general τ ≪ 𝐿 𝑇𝑠, timing synchronization errors are not that critical as long as the
induced phase change is corrected.
• Conclusion: To minimize SNR loss due to imperfect timing synchronization, the timing errors
should be kept small compared to the guard interval, and a small margin in the cyclic prefix length
is helpful.

3.4.2 Frequency Synchronization:

• OFDM achieves a high degree of bandwidth efficiency compared to other wideband systems.
• In OFDM, the subcarrier packing is extremely tight compared to conventional modulation
techniques, which require a guard band on the order of 50% or more.
• Frequency offsets is very sensitive in OFDM due to the fact that the subcarriers overlap, rather
than having each subcarrier truly spectrally isolated.
• The zero crossings of the frequency domain sine pulses all line up as seen in Figure 3.8, as long as
the frequency offset 𝛿= 0, there is no interference between the subcarriers.
• In practice, of course, the frequency offset is not always zero. The major causes for this are
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o Mismatched oscillators at the transmitter and receiver

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o Precise crystal oscillators are expensive, tolerating some degree of frequency offset is essential in
a consumer OFDM system like LTE.

• Hence the received samples of the FFT will contain interference from the adjacent subcarriers,
called inter-carrier interference (ICI) and it effect on OFDM performance.
• The matched filter receiver corresponding to subcarrier 𝑙 can be simply expressed for the case of
rectangular windows (neglecting the carrier frequency) as

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Figure 3.10: SNR loss as a function of the frequency offset 8, relative to the subcarrier spacing.
The solid lines are for a fading channel and the dotted lines are for an AWGN channel.
• Important observations from the ICI expression (3.23) and Figure 3.10 are that:
o SNR decreases quadratically with the frequency offset.
o SNR decreases quadratically with the number of subcarriers.
o The loss in SNR is also proportional to the SNR itself.
• In order to keep the loss negligible, say less than 0.1 dB, the relative frequency offset needs to be
about 1-2% of the subcarrier spacing, or even lower to preserve high SNRs.
• Therefore, this is a case where reducing the CP overhead by increasing the number of subcarriers
causes an offsetting penalty, introducing a tradeoff.
• In order to further reduce the ICI for a given choice of L, non-rectangular windows can also be
used.

3.5 The Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) ***

• Definition: The PAPR is the ratio the maximum power of a sample in a given OFDM transmit symbol
to the average power of that OFDM symbol. In simple terms, PAPR is the ratio of peak power to the
average power of a signal. It is expressed in the units of dB.

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• PAPR occurs when in a multicarrier system the different sub-carriers are out of phase with each
other.
• OFDM signals have a higher peak-to-average ratio (PAPR). This high PAR is one of the most
important implementation challenges that face OFDM because it reduces the efficiency and hence
increases the cost of the RF power amplifier, which is one of the most expensive components in the
LTE transmitter.
• Alternatively, the same power amplifier (PA) can be used but the input power to the PA must be
reduced: this is known as input backoff (IBO) and results in a lower average SNR at the receiver,
and hence a reduced transmit range.
3.5.1 The PAR Problem:
• When a high-peak signal is transmitted through a nonlinear device such as a high-power amplifier
(HPA) or digital-to-analog converter (DAC), it generates out-of-band energy and in- band
distortion. These degradations may affect the system performance severely.
• The nonlinear behavior of HPA can be characterized by amplitude modulation/amplitude
modulation (AM/AM) and amplitude modulation/phase modulation (AM/PM) responses.
• Figure 3.11 shows a typical AM/AM response for an HPA, with the associated input and output
backoff regions. IBO and OBO, respectively.

Figure 3.11: A typical power amplifier response.

• Operation in the linear region is required in order to avoid distortion, so the peak value must be
constrained to be in this region, which means that on average, the power amplifier is underutilized
by a "backoff" amount.
• To avoid the undesirable nonlinear effects just mentioned, a waveform with high-peak power must
be transmitted in the linear region of the HPA by decreasing the average power of the input signal.
This is called input backoff (IBO) and results in a proportional output backoff (OBO).
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• High backoff reduces the power efficiency of the HPA, and may limit the battery life for mobile
applications.
• In addition to inefficiency in terms of power, the coverage range is reduced and the cost of the HPA
is higher than would be mandated by the average power requirements.
• The input backoff is defined as
𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑆𝑎𝑡
𝐼𝐵𝑂 = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔10
𝑃𝑖𝑛

Where 𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑆𝑎𝑡 is the saturation power and 𝑃𝑖𝑛 is the average input power.

• The amount of backoff is usually greater than or equal to the PAR of the signal.
• The power efficiency of an HPA can be increased by reducing the PAR of the transmitted signal. It
would be desirable to have the average and peak values be as close together as possible in order to
maximize the efficiency of the power amplifier.
• In addition to the large burden placed on the HPA, a high PAR requires high resolution for both the
transmitter's DAC and the receiver's ADC, since the dynamic range of the signal is proportional to
the PAR.
• High-resolution D/A & A/D conversion places an additional complexity, cost, and power burden on
the system.

3.5.2 Quantifying the PAR:

• The OFDM carries L narrowband signals. In particular, each of the L output samples from an L-
point IFFT operation involves the sum of L complex numbers, the resulting output values
{x1, x2,…… ,xL} can be accurately modelled and the amplitude of the output signal is

|𝑥[𝑛]| = √(ℜ{𝑥[𝑛]})2 + (ℑ{𝑥[𝑛]})2

Where ℜ and ℑ give the real and imaginary parts. Since x[n] is complex Gaussian, the output
power is

|x[n]|2 = (ℜ{𝑥[𝑛]})2 + (ℑ{𝑥[𝑛]})2

• Which is exponentially distributed with mean 2𝜎2. The important thing to note is that the output
amplitude and hence power are random, so the PAR is not a deterministic quantity either.
• The PAR of the transmitted analog signal can be defined as
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• The discrete-time PAR can be defined for the IFFT output as

• The maximum possible value of the PAR is L or 10 log10 L dB, which would occur if all the
subcarriers add up constructively at a single point.

3.5.3 Clipping and Other PAR Reduction Techniques:

• Clipping Techniques:
o In this technique "clip" off the highest peaks, at the cost of some hopefully minimal distortion
of the signal. Second and conversely, it can be seen that even for a conservative choice of IBO,
say 10 dB, there is still a distinct possibility that a given OFDM symbol will have a PAR that
exceeds the IBO and causes clipping.
o Clipping, sometimes called "soft limiting," truncates the amplitude of signals that exceed the
clipping level as

Where x (n) is the original signal and 𝑥(𝑛) is the output after clipping, and A is the clipping level, that
is, the maximum output envelope value. The clipping ratio can be used as a metric and is defined as

• Conclusion:
o Clipping reduces the PAR at the expense of distorting the desired signal.
o The two primary drawbacks from clipping are
1. Spectral regrowth (frequency domain leakage), which causes unacceptable interference
to users in neighboring RF channels,
2. Distortion of the desired signal.
• Spectral Regrowth:
o It is frequency domain leakage noise due to clipping. The clipping noise can be expressed
in the frequency domain through the use of the DFT.
o The resulting clipped frequency domain signal 𝑋is
𝑋 = 𝑋𝑘 + 𝐶𝑘 K= 0 ......................L-1
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Where Ck represents the clipped off signal in the frequency domain.

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o In Figure 3.14, the power spectral density of the original (X), clipped (𝑋), and clipped-off (C)
signals are plotted for different clipping ratios 7 of 3, 5, and 7 dB.

Figure 3.14 Power spectral density (PSD) of the unclipped (original) and clipped (nonlinearly
distorted) OFDM signals with 2048 block size and 64 QAM when clipping ratio (𝛾) is 3, 5, and
7 dB in soft limiter

o The following deleterious effects are observed.

1. The clipped-off signal Ck is strikingly increased as the clipping ratio is lowered from 7 dB to
3 dB.
2. This increase shows the correlation between Xk, and Ck inside the desired band at low
clipping ratios, and causes the in-band signal to be attenuated as the clipping ratio is
lowered.
3. It can be seen that the out-of-band interference caused by the clipped signal X is
determined by the shape of clipped-off signal Ck.

3.5.4 LTE's Approach to PAR in the Uplink:

• PAR is less important because the base stations are fewer in number and generally higher in cost,
and so are not especially sensitive to the exact PAR.
• If the PAR is still considered to be too high, a number of techniques can be utilized to bring it down,
all with some complexity and performance tradeoffs. Typically, the high PAR is basically tolerated
and sufficient input power backoff is undertaken in order to keep the in-band distortion and
spectral regrowth at an acceptable level.
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• Figure below Bit error rate probability for a clipped OFDM signal in AWGN with different clipping
ratios.

3.6 Single-Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE)

• SC-FDE maintains OFDM's three most important benefits:
(1) Low complexity even for severe multipath channels
(2) Excellent BER performance, close to theoretical bounds.
(3)Decoupling of ISI from other types of interference, notably spatial interference, which is very
useful when using multiple antenna transmission.
• By utilizing single-carrier transmission, the peak-to-average ratio is also reduced significantly (by
several dB) relative to multicarrier modulation.

3.6.1 SC-FDE System Description

• The block diagrams for OFDM and SC-FDE are compared in Figure 3.17
• IFFT is moved to the end of the receive chain rather than operating at the transmitter, to create a
multicarrier waveform as in OFDM.
• An SC-FDE system still utilizes a cyclic prefix at least as long as the channel delay spread, but now
the transmitted signal is simply a sequence of QAM symbols, which have low PAR, on the order of
4-5 dB depending on the constellation size.
• Considering that an unmodulated sine wave has a PAR of 3 dB, it is clear that the PAR cannot be
lowered much below that of an SC-FDE system.
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Figure 3.17 Comparison between an OFDM system and an SC-FDE system. The principle
difference is that the IFFT formerly in the transmitter is in the SC-FDE receiver
• As in an OFDM system, an FFT is applied, but in an SC-FDE system this operation moves the
received signal into the frequency domain.
• Because of the application of the cyclic prefix, the received signal appears to be circularly
convolved, that is, y[n] = x[n]⊛ h[n] + w[n], where w[n] is noise. Therefore,

𝐹𝐹𝑇{ 𝑦(𝑛)} ≜ 𝑌[𝑚] = 𝐻[𝑚]𝑋[𝑚] + 𝑊[𝑚]

• After the FFT, a simple 1-tap FEQ can be applied that inverts each virtual subcarrier, so that
𝑌 [𝑚]
𝑋[𝑚] =
𝐻 [𝑚]
• Use IFFT operation to obtain resulting signal back into the time domain using ie 𝑥[n], which
are estimates of the desired data symbols. Naturally, in practice H[m] must be estimated at the
receiver using pilot signals or other standard methods.

3.6.2 SC-FDE Performance vs. OFDM:

SLNo. OFDM SC-FDE
1. OFDM provides high performance Relatively less performance
2. The high Peak-to-Average Power The low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio
Ratio (PAPR) associated with OFDM (PAPR) associated with SC-FDE
3. SNR ratio of each data symbol is SNR ratio of each data symbol is change
doesn’t change by multiplying by multiplying constant factor receiver.
constant factor at receiver.
4. OFDM has a nominally less dispersive SC-FDE has a nominally more dispersive
spectrum. spectrum.
5. OFDM's sharper spectrum results in Due to dispersive spectrum results more
20

less CCI and/or less restrictive RF roll- co-channel interference and/or more
off requirements. restrictive RF roll-off requirements.
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6. In OFDM, short-scale variations in SNR In SC-FDE, however, the FEQ does not
would generally be addressed by operate on data symbols themselves but
coding and interleaving. rather on the frequency domain dual of
the data symbols
7. The noise amplification is isolated, The noise amplification is not isolated to a
hence it does not affects all the symbols single symbol in SC-FDE, but instead
prior to decoding and affects all the symbols prior to decoding
detection. and detection.
8. On the whole, OFDM continues to be SC-FDE less popular than OFDM.
much more popular than SC-FDE

3.6.3 Design Considerations for SC-FDE and OFDM:

SLNo. OFDM SC-FDE

1 In General OFDM is more complex Relatively less complex
2 It has a lower-complexity receiver It has higher-complexity receiver
3 It has medium-complexity transmitter It has lower-complexity transmitter
4 LTE downlink could utilize OFDM LTE uplink could utilize SC-FDE
5 The Base Station as transmitter It perform only a single FFT operation at
would perform 3 IFFT/FFT operations receiver
6 The PAR is high in OFDM and high It benefits of reduced PAR and the
cost and more power requirement. reduced cost and power savings.
7 The channel estimation and It include preamble is in the time domain
synchronization are accomplished via so it is not as straightforward to estimate
a preamble of known data symbols, the frequency domain values.
and then pilot tones.
8 The preamble can be inserted at It is not possible to insert pilot tones on a
known positions in all subsequent per frame basis. Hence it uses DFT and
OFDM symbols IFFT at the transmitter
9 OFDM has a nominally less dispersive SC-FDE has a nominally more dispersive
spectrum. spectrum.
10 OFDM's sharper spectrum results in Due to dispersive spectrum results more
less co-channel interference and/or co-channel interference and/or more
less restrictive RF roll-off restrictive RF roll-off requirements.
requirements.
11 The combination of OFDM with MIMO The combination of SC-FDE with MIMO is
is a natural and best combination for not as natural because detection cannot be
performance improvement in fading done in the frequency domain. Not possible
channel. to use maximum likelihood
detection for MIMO with SC-FDE
21

12 On the whole, OFDM continues to be SC-FDE less popular than OFDM.

much more popular than SC-FDE
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