Performance Comparisons Between OFDM and DS-CDMA Radio Access Using MIMO Multiplexing in Multi-path Fading Channels

Junichiro Kawamoto, Hiroyuki Kawai, Noriyuki Maeda, Kenichi Higuchi, and Mamoru Sawahashi
IP Radio Network Development Department, NTT DoCoMo, Inc. 3-5 Hikari-no-oka Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa-Ken, 239-8536 Japan
Abstract - This paper compares the throughput performance and computational complexity of the signal detection part in a receiver between OFDM and DS-CDMA packet radio access using MIMO multiplexing in multipath fading channels. We employ the following signal detection methods: Maximum Likelihood Detection using QR decomposition and the M-algorithm (hereafter QRM-MLD); a Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) based equalizer; QRM-MLD combined with a multipath interference canceller (MPIC); and a serial interference canceller using the MMSE equalizer with decision-feedback data symbols after Turbo decoding (SIC). The simulation results indicate that the achievable throughput in OFDM access using QRM-MLD can be increased by approximately 1.3 times that of DS-CDMA access using QRM-MLD with MPIC assuming the same average received signal energy per symbol-to-noise power spectrum density ratio (Es/N0) for 16QAM modulation and Turbo coding with the coding rate of 8/9 in 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing, while achieving a lower computational complexity level compared to the DS-CDMA case. Therefore, we conclude that OFDM based radio access is more promising than DS-CDMA access owing to its robustness against multipath interference for MIMO multiplexing from the viewpoints of the achievable throughput and the computational complexity of the signal detection in a MIMO receiver. I. INTRODUCTION The study item, the Evolved UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) and UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) using the 3G spectrum with the maximum channel bandwidth of 20 MHz, was proposed in the 3 rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) last December in order to achieve full IP-based functionalities with low latency and low cost. In a channel bandwidth wider than 5 MHz, multipath interference (MPI) impairs the achievable data rate and coverage. In DS-CDMA based packet access using code-multiplexing where the number of code channels almost corresponds to the spreading factor value, the Rake path diversity effect is not gained because the practical spreading factor becomes almost one. In order to mitigate the increasing MPI, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based radio access is very promising [1] owing to its inherent immunity to MPI due to a low symbol rate along with the use of a cyclic prefix (CP), and its priority to DS-CDMA based radio access was investigated [2], [3]. On the other hand, it is anticipated that in local areas such as small isolated cells, hot-spot areas, and indoor, in which there is a high traffic demand in a short distance area, a much higher sector throughput is necessary than in cellular environments. In such local areas, we set our target sector throughput to be greater than 100 Mbps assuming a 10-MHz channel bandwidth (i.e., corresponding frequency efficiency of 10 bits/second/Hz). It is well known that the use of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel is very beneficial to achieving such high frequency efficiency by taking advantage of space division multiplexing (SDM) using the same channel bandwidth, time slot, and spreading code [4]. It is considered that MIMO multiplexing is a very promising technique that enables such high sector throughput with a limited frequency spectrum in limited areas. Therefore, the optimum radio access in the evolved UTRA should be decided simultaneously taking into account the affinity to MIMO multiplexing (or MIMO diversity). This paper compares the throughput performance and computational complexity of the signal detection part in a receiver between OFDM and DS-CDMA (we regard this as representative of single-carrier access) packet radio access using MIMO multiplexing in multipath Rayleigh fading channels. The superior radio access scheme is clarified based on the viewpoints of two very important requirements in MIMO multiplexing, the achievable throughput and the receiver complexity (note that the requirement pertaining to the receiver complexity is strict in the downlink and that the signal detection is considered to be a major contribution in the overall digital signal processing part). In the paper, we employ various types of signal detection methods to derive generic results: Maximum Likelihood Detection using QR decomposition and the M-algorithm (hereafter QRM-MLD) [5]; a Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) based equalizer [6]; QRM-MLD combined with a multipath interference canceller (MPIC) [7]; and a serial interference canceller using the MMSE equalizer with decision-feedback data symbols after Turbo decoding (hereafter simply SIC) [8]. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. First, we explain the configurations of the signal detection methods assumed in the paper for OFDM and DS-CDMA radio access in Section II. Section III describes the simulation conditions. Finally, Section IV presents comparison results of OFDM and DS-CDMA radio access based on throughput and the computational complexity of signal detection in the receiver. II. CONFIGURATIONS OF SIGNAL DETECTION METHODS A. Signal Detection Method in OFDM In OFDM radio access, the following three signal detection methods are assumed. 1. QRM-MLD [5], [9] In OFDM radio access, we assume the QRM-MLD signal detection method, since QRM-MLD achieves almost the identical signal separation capability with a significantly lower computational complexity level than that of the conventional MLD (hereafter Full MLD) [5]. Furthermore, to reduce the computational complexity level of the original QRM-MLD, an adaptive selection algorithm for surviving symbol replica candidates based on the maximum reliability (hereafter ASESS), which was proposed in [9], is applied. Figure 1(a) shows the configuration of QRM-MLD with ASESS. First, Channel matrix H (size of Nr x Nt; Nt and Nr represent the number of transmitter and receiver antenna branches, respectively) is estimated using the orthogonal pilot channel associated with each transmission antenna branch. The transmitted data streams from multiple transmission branches are ranked at each sub-carrier according to the signal-tointerference plus noise power ratio (SINR) over one packet frame in descending order from the largest SINR antenna branch. By performing QR decomposition for the estimate of the channel matrix, the R matrix becomes an upper triangular matrix with the size of Nt x Nt. Then, by multiplying the Hermitian transpose of the Q matrix (size of Nr x Nt) with the received signal vector, transmission signals become orthogonal. By using these orthogonalized received signals, complexity-reduced MLD using the M-algorithm is performed. In this M-algorithm part, we applied the ASESS algorithm. Instead of calculating branch metrics for all the remaining symbol candidates at each stage in the original QRM-MLD, the ASESS algorithm calculates the branch metrics only for the limited symbol candidates that survive to the next stage, which results in further reduction of the computational complexity. The ASESS algorithm comprises the following two steps. In the first step, newlyadded symbol replicas at the m-th stage (m = 1, , Nt) are ranked for respective surviving symbol replicas from the (m-1)-th stage using quadrant detection. In the second step, the surviving symbol replica candidates for the next stage are selected iteratively from the ranking information of the newly-added symbol replicas and the accumulated branch metrics.

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2. MMSE-Based Equalizer Figure 1(b) illustrates the configuration of the MMSE-based equalizer. , at the k-th subIn the MMSE method in OFDM, channel matrix, H k carrier with the size of Nr x Nt, is generated from the orthogonal pilot channels, which is similar to the QRM-MLD method. Then, weights for the MMSE equalization are generated to maximize the unconstraint SINR by suppressing the received signals from the other transmission antenna branches as
) H {H (H ) H + N I}1 Wk = (H k k k k

Received signals
QH multiplication

Complexity reduced MLD (M-algorithm) using ASESS

Euclidian distance calculation
Adaptive selection of surviving candidate
LLR calc. For all transmitter antenna branches

Recovered data

Q matrix

Soft-decision Turbo decoder

Channel estimation

QR decomposition

R matrix

(a) QRM-MLD
Received signals

where N k represents the noise power. After multiplying the equalization weight with the received signal vector, the log likelihood ratio (LLR) of a posteriori probability (APP) for each bit for soft-decision Turbo decoding is calculated using equalized signals from all transmission antenna branches. 3. SIC [8] Figure 1(c) illustrates the configuration of SIC in OFDM radio access. MMSE-based equalization is applied to the first-ranked transmission signal with the highest received SINR. Then, tentative symbol decisions based on the soft-decision Turbo decoding are obtained for that transmission signal (note that the each transmission signal can be independently soft-decision-Turbo-decoded since we apply Turbo encoding separately at each transmission antenna branch). The symbol replica at each sub-carrier is generated from the LLR at the Turbo decoder output, and then, it is subtracted from the buffered received signals in the frequency domain. After the interference cancellation from the first-ranked transmission signal, signal detection and interference cancellation of the transmission signal with the secondhighest received SINR are performed. This process is successively repeated until all the transmission signals are recovered. B. Signal Detection Methods in DS-CDMA In DS-CDMA radio access, the following three signal detection methods accompanied by the MPI mitigation method are assumed. 1. Two-Dimensional Frequency Domain MMSE-Based Equalizer [6] We applied two-dimensional frequency domain MMSE equalization in DS-CDMA radio access, because co-channel interference in both the spatial (other transmission antenna branches) and time (delayed paths) domains must be suppressed. The complex channel impulse response, i.e., channel gain, at the n-th frame of the l-th path at the q-th receiver antenna branch from the p-th transmitter antenna branch is estimated using the orthogonal pilot channels. By performing FFT processing for the estimated channel impulse response with NFFT-sampling points, an , at the f-th frequency component estimate of the channel matrix, H f ( 0 f < N FFT ) in the frequency domain with the size of Nr x Nt is calculated. The weights for the two-dimensional frequency domain MMSE equalization are obtained from the estimate of the channel matrix as ) H {H (H ) H + N I} 1 where N f represents the noise component W f = (H f f f f in the frequency domain. After equalization, the equalized frequency domain signal is converted to a time domain signal using IFFT, and the LLR is calculated for soft-decision Turbo decoding. 2. QRM-MLD Combined with MMSE-Based MPIC [7] Figure 1(d) illustrates the configuration of QRM-MLD combined with MPIC based on two-dimensional MMSE [7]. As shown in the figure, QRM-MLD with MPIC comprises two parts: the MPIC part and the QRM-MLD part. In the MPIC part, the two-dimensional frequency domain MMSE equalization, which is the same as that described in Sec. II.B.1, is performed first. Tentative data decision is performed against the time-domain received signal after equalization, i.e., before Turbo decoding. By using tentative decision data and channel estimation, the MPI replicas (received signal replica for each path) at all the receiver antenna branches are calculated. The MPI replicas are subtracted from the received signal. Finally, the received signal after MPI replica cancellation (total number of MPI-cancelled signals becomes Nr x L, which means that the equivalent number of received signals is Nr x L for QRM-MLD) is fed into the QRM-MLD with ASESS. The signal detection process in QRM-MLD with ASESS is identical to that of

Recovered data

MMSE based signal detection

Channel estimation

Euclidian distance calculation

LLR calc.

Soft-decision Turbo decoder

For all transmitter antenna branches

(b) MMSE-based equalizer

Received signals
MMSE based signal detection

Euclidian distance calculation

LLR calc.

Soft-decision Turbo decoder

MPI replica generation

Recovered data for Tx. antenna branch #1

Delay

Channel Estimation

Recovered data for Tx. antenna branch #2

Delay
Received signals

Recovered data for Tx. antenna branch #4

(c) SIC
For all transmitter antenna branches

MMSE based signal detection

Tentative soft-data decision

MPI replica generation

MPI replica for all paths of all received signals

(d) QRM-MLD combined with MMSE-based MPIC (for DS-CDMA) Figure 1. Configuration of signal detection method.

OFDM radio access as described in Sec. II.A.1. 3. SIC [8] We evaluate SIC also in DS-CDMA radio access. There are two differences in the SIC operation in DS-CDMA from that in OFDM radio access. The first is that two-dimensional MMSE equalization, which suppresses both MPI and the interference from other transmission antenna branches, is employed. The second is the interference cancellation part. The MPI replicas of the decoded transmission signals for all paths are generated and subtracted from the buffered received signals in the time domain processing. III. SIMULATION CONFIGURATION Table I gives the radio parameters assumed in the subsequent simulation evaluations, and Figs. 2 and 3 show the packet frame structure for OFDM access and DS-CDMA access, respectively. We assume a 10MHz transmission bandwidth. In OFDM radio access, we assume 752 sub-carriers with the sub-carrier separation of 12 kHz, which corresponds to the effective symbol duration of 83.333 sec. A CP with a 5.952-sec duration is appended to every OFDM symbol. On the other hand, in DS-CDMA radio access, the chip rate of 8.192 Mcps

Delay
MPI replica cancellation

Channel estimation

MPI replica generation unit

Recovered data

QRM-MLD with ASESS

LLR calc.
For all transmitter antenna branches

Soft-decision Turbo decoder

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Table I. Simulation Parameters

Bandwidth
OFDM 9.024 MHz

OFDM symbol #1
DS-CDMA

#2

#3

#7

Symbol rate

Number of sub-carriers
Spreading factor
Symbol duration

11.2 ksps 752 (12 kHz sub-carrier separation)

9.36 MHz (Roll-off factor = 0.14375) 8.192 Mcps

CP Effective data CP Effective data CP Effective data

CP Effective data

1
1

5.952 sec

83.333 sec
1 packet frame = 0.625 msec

83.333 sec + 5.952 sec (cyclic prefix)

0.625 msec

122 nsec

(a) Frame format

Frequency
Data Pilot for Tx #1 Pilot for Tx #2 Pilot for Tx #3 Pilot for Tx #4

Packet frame length (TTI length)

0.642 msec
2-by-2, 4-by-4

#752

Number of transmitter and receiver antennas

MCS set
Channel estimation

QPSK, R = 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 8/9 8PSK, R = 2/3, 3/4, 8/9 16QAM, R = 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 8/9

Pilot symbol based real estimation

Pilot symbol based real estimation

Ideal

Symbol timing detection

Symbol detection
QRM-MLD, SIC, MMSE

QRM-MLD, QRM-MLD with MPIC, SIC, MMSE

Sub-carrier

#2 #1 #1 #2 #3

#7

with the roll-off factor of 0.14375 is used. We also appended a CP with a 1.587-sec duration (13 chips) to each data block with a 62.500-sec length (512 chips) in order to improve the performance of the MMSEbased frequency domain equalization. We assume two and four transmitter/receiver antenna branches, i.e., 2-by-2 and 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing, respectively. At the transmitter, binary information data bits are first serial-to-parallel converted to two or four streams corresponding to the number of transmitter antenna branches, and then Turbo encoded with the coding rate of R = 1/2 to 8/9. The resultant encoded sequence stream is datamodulated with QPSK, 8PSK, or 16QAM. When 16QAM with R = 8/ 9 is used, the information bit rate for OFDM and DS-CDMA becomes 102.67 Mbps and 102.08 Mbps for 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing, respectively. We use a time multiplexed pilot channel to avoid interference from the data channel to the pilot channel. Thus, we do not apply code multiplexing, i.e., the spreading factor is set to one for both OFDM and DS-CDMA radio access. As a result, eleven modulation and channel coding schemes (MCSs) in total are assumed as shown in Table I, and we assume that the optimum MCS is ideally selected according to the average received signal energy per symbol-to-noise power spectrum density ratio (Es/N0) value in Figs. 7(a) and 7(b). In the OFDM case, the bit sequence is interleaved over all the sub-carriers. One packet frame length of OFDM radio access is set to 0.625 msec, which comprises seven OFDM symbols. Similarly in DS-CDMA radio access, one packet frame length is set to 0.642 msec, which corresponds to a 5263-chip duration. In OFDM radio access, pilot symbols are mapped at the first and second OFDM symbols and the resultant pilot insertion interval in the frequency domain is set to four sub-carriers per transmit antenna as shown in Fig. 2(b). The transmission power of the pilot symbol is set to four-times larger than that of the data symbols. Meanwhile, in DS-CDMA radio access, two blocks of pilot symbols are time multiplexed into the head and tail part of the frame, and the length of each pilot block is set to 31.250 sec (256 chips) as shown in Fig. 3. Four orthogonal pilot channels for the respective transmitter antenna branches are code-multiplexed using different orthogonal code sequences in DS-CDMA access. Therefore, the pilot overhead ratios for OFDM and DS-CDMA become 14.29% and 10.22%, respectively. At the receiver, we assume ideal received signal timing detection, i.e., ideal OFDM timing (i.e., FFT window timing) detection for OFDM radio access and ideal received path timing detection in DSCDMA radio access. Meanwhile, channel estimation is actually performed by using pilot symbols within one packet frame. In OFDM access, two neighboring pilot symbols (four-sub-carriers apart) are averaged by linear interpolation in the frequency domain to produce the channel estimate for all sub-carriers between the positions of two pilots, and the same channel estimate is used for all OFDM symbols within one packet frame for each sub-carrier. On the other hand, in DSCDMA access, channel estimation is performed for each path in the time domain by coherently accumulating the pilot symbols within one frame (total of 512 chips). In QRM-MLD, the number of surviving symbol replicas at each stage {S1, S2, S3, S4} is set to {4, 16, 28, 28} for QPSK, {8, 28, 28, 28} for 8PSK, and {16, 28, 28, 28} for 16QAM. We

OFDM symbol

Time

(b) Pilot symbol mapping Figure 2. Frame structure for OFDM radio access.
CP Pilot CP Data block #1 CP Data block #2
13 chips 256 chips
512 chips

CP Data block #9 CP Pilot

1 packet frame = 0.642 msec (= 5263 chips)

Figure 3. Frame structure for DS-CDMA radio access.

Relative power (dB)
Relative power (dB)

r.m.s. delay spread = 52 nsec -6 dB

0 -2 -4

r.m.s. delay spread = 279 nsec

-6 -8 -10 dB

0 130 Delay time (nsec)

0 195 390 585 780 975 Delay time (nsec)

(a) Indoor model (b) Microcell model Figure 4. Multipath fading channel models.

use soft-decision Turbo decoding. The LLR of APP for each bit for QRM-MLD is calculated from the accumulated branch metrics of the surviving symbol candidates at the last stage using the method described in [11]. We evaluate the performance using an exponential decayed power delay profile model based on COST259 [12] as shown in Fig. 4. The indoor model has two paths with the r.m.s. delay spread of 52 nsec. The microcell model has six paths with the r.m.s. delay spread of 279 nsec. The fading maximum Doppler frequency is fD = 20 Hz. The fading correlation between two contiguous antenna branches is set to zero for the transmitter and receiver antenna branches, except for Fig. 8(a) and 8(b), in which fading correlation between antenna branches is parameterized. IV. SIMULATION RESULTS A. Comparison of Signal Detection Methods for Each Radio Access Scheme Figures 5(a) and 5(b) show the throughput performance levels using 4by-4 MIMO multiplexing for OFDM radio access in the indoor and microcell models, respectively, as a function of the average received Es/ N0 for various signal detection methods. The Es/N0 value includes the overhead loss due to the insertion of a CP and pilot symbols. Fixed MCSs of 16QAM with R = 1/2 and 8/9 are tested. Figure 5 shows that the QRM-MLD method achieves far superior throughput performance compared to MMSE and SIC for OFDM radio access when the coding rate is high such as 8/9 both in the indoor and microcell models. This is because QRM-MLD can achieve the best signal detection accuracy based on the maximum likelihood criteria when there is no interference due to multipaths in OFDM radio access. However, when the coding rate is R = 1/2, SIC outperforms QRM-MLD in the average Es/N0

105

120
16QAM, R = 8/9

120
QRM-MLD SIC MMSE
16QAM, R = 1/2

16QAM, R = 8/9

100

100

Throughput (Mbps)

80 60 40 20 0 0 5

Throughput (Mbps)

80 60 40 20 0 0 5

QRM-MLD with MPIC QRM-MLD without MPIC SIC MMSE

16QAM, R = 1/2

OFDM 4 x 4 MIMO Indoor model

DS-CDMA 4 x 4 MIMO Indoor model

10

15

20

25

10

15

20

25

Average received Es/N0 per receiver antenna branch (dB)

(a) Indoor model

Average received Es/N0 per receiver antenna branch (dB)

(a) Indoor model

120
16QAM, R = 8/9

120
QRM-MLD SIC MMSE
16QAM, R = 1/2
OFDM 4 x 4 MIMO Microcell model

16QAM, R = 8/9
QRM-MLD with MPIC QRM-MLD without MPIC SIC MMSE

100

100

Throughput (Mbps)

Throughput (Mbps)

80 60 40 20 0 0 5

80 60 40 20 0 0 5

16QAM, R = 1/2
DS-CDMA 4 x 4 MIMO Microcell model

10

15

20

25

10

15

20

25

Average received Es/N0 per receiver antenna branch (dB)

(b) Microcell model Figure 5. Throughput performance of each MCS in OFDM.

(b) Microcell model Figure 6. Throughput performance of each MCS in DS-CDMA.

Average received Es/N0 per receiver antenna branch (dB)

region below 12 dB. This is because in such a low Es/N0 region, the accuracy of the correct surviving symbol replica selection in QRMMLD is degraded. Accordingly, false discard of correct surviving symbol replica candidates brings about severe throughput degradation. Meanwhile, SIC can achieve accurate interference cancellation based on decision feedback data from the Turbo decoder output. However, it is anticipated that when the adaptive modulation and coding rate (AMC) is employed, this performance inferiority of QRM-MLD in such a low Es/N 0 region is concealed by another lower MCS. From these observations, in the following evaluation we used QRM-MLD and SIC for the signal detection methods in OFDM radio access. Figures 6(a) and 6(b) show the throughput performance levels using 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing for DS-CDMA radio access in the indoor and microcell models, respectively, for various signal detection methods. The same MCSs as in Figs. 5(a) and 5(b) are assumed. Figures 6(a) and 6(b) show that the throughput level of QRM-MLD without MPIC is significantly degraded since the signal detection accuracy in the QRM-MLD is severely degraded due to MPI from all transmission antenna branches. The MMSE method can achieve better throughput compared to QRM-MLD since two-dimensional MMSE can suppress simultaneously the interference from multipaths and the interference from other transmitter antenna branches. However, the achievable throughput of the MMSE method becomes much lower than the maximum information bit rate mainly due to large noise enhancement. On the other hand, the SIC method achieves greater throughput than MMSE and greater than that for QRM-MLD with MMSE-based MPIC for R = 1/2. This is due to employing interference cancellation based on decision feedback data from the Turbo decoder output. However, since the accuracy of the decision feedback data after Turbo decoding strongly depends on the R value, the achievable throughput of SIC with R = 8/9 is degraded especially in the microcell model as shown in Fig. 6.

Moreover, QRM-MLD combined with MPIC achieves the highest throughput especially for a high Turbo coding rate case, since accurate signal detection based on QRM-MLD is achieved after sufficient MPI cancellation. Based on these observations, in the following evaluation we used QRM-MLD with MPIC and SIC for the signal detection methods in DS-CDMA radio access. B. Comparison of Throughput Performance Between OFDM Radio Access and DS-CDMA Radio Access Figures 7(a) and 7(b) show the throughput performance levels using 2by-2 and 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing for OFDM and DS-CDMA radio access in the indoor and microcell models, respectively, as a function of the average received Es/N0. The signal detection method used in the OFDM is QRM-MLD and SIC, and those used in DS-CDMA are QRM-MLD with MPIC and the SIC methods. In the figures, we plot the achievable throughput of the MCS providing the maximum throughput at each average received Es/N0 among the MCS candidates in Table I. Figures 7(a) and 7(b) show that a distinct difference in the throughput between OFDM and DS-CDMA access is not observed when the average received Es/N0 is lower than approximately 10 dB. This is because since QPSK modulation with a low coding rate is used in this region, the influence of the MPI is sufficiently removed by MPIC or SIC using decision-feedback data symbols. Meanwhile, we clearly see that the throughput of OFDM using QRM-MLD is superior to that of DS-CDMA in the high received E s/N 0 region beyond approximately 10 dB. This is because OFDM access mitigates MPI using a long-symbol duration along with a CP even for 16QAM modulation and a high coding rate, while in DS-CDMA, the impact of the generation error of MPI replicas becomes large according to the increase in the modulation level and the decrease in the channel coding gain. This reason can be clarified from the result that the degree of

106

120 100

for throughput = 50, 100 Mbps (dB)

Required average received Es/N0

Throughput (Mbps)

80 60

OFDM QRM-MLD SIC DS-CDMA QRM-MLD with MPIC SIC

4 x 4 MIMO

30 25 20 15 10 5 0
DS-CDMA OFDM QRM-MLD QRM-MLD with MPIC SIC SIC

4 x 4 MIMO indoor model 50 Mbps 100 Mbps

40 20 0 -5 0 5 10 15
2 x 2 MIMO

Indoor model

20

25

30

Average received Es/N0 per receiver antenna branch (dB)

(a) Indoor model

0.1

Fading correlation factor,

(a) Indoor model

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

120 100

for throughput = 50, 100 Mbps (dB)

Required average received Es/N0

Throughput (Mbps)

80 60

OFDM QRM-MLD SIC DS-CDMA QRM-MLD with MPIC SIC

30 25 20 15 10 5 0
OFDM DS-CDMA QRM-MLD QRM-MLD with MPIC SIC SIC

4 x 4 MIMO microcell model 50 Mbps 100 Mbps

4 x 4 MIMO

40 20 0 -5 0 5 10
2 x 2 MIMO Microcell model

15

20

25

Average received Es/N0 per receiver antenna branch (dB)

(b) Microcell model Figure 7. Comparison of throughput performance.

0.1

(b) Microcell model Figure 8. Required average received Es/N 0 for throughput of 50 and 100 Mbps as a function of fading correlation between antennas.

Fading correlation factor,

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

superiority of OFDM to DS-CDMA becomes large according to the increase in the number of paths by comparing Figs. 7(a) to 7(b). In DSCDMA access, the throughput of 100 Mbps (i.e., frequency efficiency of 10 bits/second/Hz) is achieved at the average received Es/N0 of approximately 24 dB in the indoor model, however, the throughput level is not achieved in the microcell model. Meanwhile, OFDM access achieves the throughput of 100 Mbps at the average received Es/N0 of approximately 19 dB both in the indoor and microcell models. These results indicate that OFDM access is superior to DS-CDMA for achieving high throughput using MIMO multiplexing, particularly in the presence of many paths. Finally, Figs. 8(a) and 8(b) show the required average received Es/N 0 for the throughput of 50 and 100 Mbps in 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing, as a function of the fading correlation among antenna branches, for the indoor and microcell models, respectively. We assumed the identical fading correlation value for both the transmitter and receiver antenna branches. The figures show that the OFDM radio access with QRM-MLD can achieve the lowest required received Es/N0 for 50 and 100 Mbps irrespective of the fading correlation value. Furthermore, the figures show that 100-Mbps throughput is achieved at the average received Es/N0 of approximately 27 dB even when the fading correlation is 0.6. We find that as the fading correlation value becomes larger, the loss in the required received Es/N0 of the DS-CDMA increases compared to that of OFDM. This reason for this is explained as follows. The diversity order is reduced according to the increase in the fading correlation value. Meanwhile, in DS-CDMA radio access, MPI must be suppressed in addition to the co-channel interference from other transmission antenna branches. As a result, the signal detection capability of MIMO multiplexing in DS-CDMA radio access is deteriorated more than that for OFDM radio access under high fading correlation

conditions. Therefore, it is clear that OFDM access is superior to DSCDMA for achieving high throughput using MIMO multiplexing, and in the presence of fading correlation among antenna branches. C. Comparison of Required Computational Complexity for Signal Detection Methods for OFDM Radio Access and DS-CDMA Radio Access In this section, the computational complexity of the signal detection part in a receiver for OFDM radio access and that for DS-CDMA radio access are compared from the viewpoint of the number of multiplication and addition operations. Tables II(a) and II(b) list the numbers of real multiplications per frame required in each signal detection algorithm for OFDM radio access and DS-CDMA radio access, respectively (the number of additions are not shown due to space limitations). In the evaluation we did not include the computational complexity required for channel estimation since there are many implementation alternatives. However, it should be noted that the impact of the computational complexity required for channel estimation on the overall computational complexity is relatively small. Tables III(a) and III(b) list the parameters assumed in the paper for OFDM radio access and DS-CDMA radio access, respectively, and using these values, Table IV shows the level of computational complexity from the viewpoint of the number of real multiplications and additions of the respective signal detection methods in OFDM and DS-CDMA access in the indoor model with the number of paths, L = 2, and the microcell model with L = 6, respectively (in the calculations, we assume a relative cost such as 10 and 1 for multiplications and additions, respectively). We assume 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing and 16QAM modulation presuming the information bit rate of 100 Mbps. Table IV indicates that the computational complexity

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Table II(a). Required Number of Multiplications for Signal Detection in OFDM

Signal detection method Operation QRM-MLD FFT QR decomposition of channel matrix H Multiplication of QH to received signal vector Calculation of squared Euclidian distances SIC FFT MMSE weight generation Signal detection using MMSE weight Calculation of squared Euclidian distances MPI replica generation MMSE FFT MMSE weight generation Signal detection using MMSE weight Calculation of squared Euclidian distances Required number of multiplications per frame (4 log2(NFFT) NFFT / 2) Nd Nant 4 Nant3 Nsub 4 Nant Nsub Nd
2

Table III(a). Assumed Parameters for OFDM

Number of Tx. and Rx. antennas Number of sub-carriers Number of data symbols per frame Number of FFT/IFFT points Modulation level Number of surviving symbol replica candidates Number of paths Nant Nsub Nd NFFT C L 2 or 4 752 6 2048 16 2 or 6

(S1, S2, S3, S4) (16, 28, 28, 28)

Generation of symbol replica candidates Nant (Nant + 1) C Nsub 2 (S1 + S2 + S3 + S4) Nd Nsub (4 log2(NFFT) NFFT / 2) Nd Nant
N ant 1 m =0

Table III(b). Assumed Parameters for DS-CDMA

Number of Tx. and Rx. antennas Number of chips per frame Number of FFT/IFFT blocks per frame Number of FFT/IFFT points (for received data) Number of FFT/IFFT points (for channel matrix) Number of effective frequency components Spreading factor Number of multicodes Over sampling factor Modulation level Number of surviving symbol replica candidates Number of paths Nant Nc Nb NFFT (m) NFFT (h) Ncal NSF Ncode Nos C L 2 or 4 5263 9 512 1024 313 1 1 4 16 2 or 6

4{2( N
2

ant

2 3 m) N ant + ( N ant N ant ) / 3}N sub

4 Nant Nsub Nd 2 Nant C Nsub Nd 4 (Nant 1) Nant Nd Nsub (4 log2(NFFT) NFFT / 2) Nd Nant 4 (2 Nant3 + (Nant3 - Nant)/3) Nsub 4 Nant Nsub Nd 2 Nant C Nsub Nd
2

(S1, S2, S3, S4) (16, 28, 28, 28)

Table IV. Comparison of Required Calculation Costs per Frame

OFDM MMSE 2x2 L=2 MIMO L = 6 4x4 L=2 MIMO L = 6 1.1 x 10+7 1.1 x 10+7 2.7 x 10+7 2.7 x 10+7 SIC 1.2 x 10+7 1.2 x 10+7 3.8 x 10+7 3.8 x 10+7 QRMMLD 1.4 x 10+7 1.4 x 10+7 3.7 x 10+7 3.7 x 10+7 MMSE 1.5 x 10+6 9.4 x 10+6 2.3 x 10+7 2.3 x 10+7 DS-CDMA SIC 1.5 x 10+7 2.2 x 10+7 5.9 x 10+7 9.9 x 10+7 QRMMLD 1.9 x 10+7 2.2 x 10+7 6.8 x 10+7 8.3 x 10+7 QRMMLD with MPIC 3.5 x 10+7 5.3 x 10+7 1.2 x 10+8 1.9 x 10+8

Table II(b). Required Number of Multiplications for Signal Detection in DS-CDMA

Signal detection method Operation Required number of multiplications per frame
3

(1) QRM-MLD QR decomposition of channel matrix H 4 Nant L Multiplication of QH to received signal 4 Nant2 L Nc / NSF Ncode vector Generation of symbol replica candidates Calculation of squared Euclidian distances (2) SIC FFT/IFFT MMSE weight generation Signal detection using MMSE weight Calculation of squared Euclidian distances MPI replica generation (3) MMSE FFT/IFFT MMSE weight generation Signal detection using MMSE weight Calculation of squared Euclidian distances (4) QRM-MLD MMSE part with MPIC MPI replica generation QRM-MLD part 2 Nant (Nant + 1) C 2 (S1 + S2 + S3 + S4) Nc 4 Nsub {log2(NFFT(m)) NFFT(m) / 2 (Nant + 1) Nant Nb + log2(NFFT(h)) NFFT(h) / 2 Nant2}
N ant 1 m= 0

4{2( N

ant

2 3 m) N ant + ( N ant N ant ) / 3}N cal

4 Nant2 Ncal Nb 2 Nant C Nc / NSF Ncode 4 (Nant 1) Nant L Nc Nos 4 Nsub {log2(NFFT(m)) NFFT(m) Nant Nb + log2(NFFT(h)) NFFT(h) / 2 Nant2} 4 (2 Nant3 + (Nant3 - Nant)/3) Ncal 4 Nant2 Ncal Nb 2 Nant C Nc / NSF Ncode {(3) MMSE} 4 Nant2 L Nc Nos {(1) QRM-MLD}

QRM-MLD can be increased by approximately 1.3 times that of DSCDMA access using QRM-MLD with MPIC assuming the same average received Es/N0 for 16QAM modulation and Turbo coding with R = 8/9 in 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing, while achieving a lower level of computational complexity compared to the DS-CDMA case. We showed that 100-Mbps throughput using the QRM-MLD method in OFDM radio access was achieved at the average received Es/N0 of approximately 27 dB even when the fading correlation is 0.6. Therefore, we conclude that OFDM access is more promising than DS-CDMA access owing to its robustness against multipath interference for MIMO multiplexing from the viewpoints of the achievable throughput and the computational complexity of the receiver.
R EFERENCES [1] 3GPP, Report of the 3GPP TSG RAN Long Term Evolution Work Shop, Nov. 2004. [2] 3GPP, TR25.892, Feasibility Study for OFDM for UTRAN Enhancement [3] J-P Javaudin, C. Dubuc, D. Lacroix, and M. Earnshaw, An OFDM evolution for the UMTS high speed downlink packet access, in Proc. IEEE VTC2004-Fall, Sept. 2004. [4] G.J. Foschini, Layered space-time architecture for wireless communication in a fading environment when using multi-element antennas, Bell Labs Technical Journal, pp. 41-59, Autumn 1996. [5] K.J. Kim and J. Yue, Joint channel estimation and data detection algorithms for MIMO-OFDM systems, in Proc. Thirty-Sixth Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers, pp. 1857-1861, Nov. 2002. [6] X. Zhu, and R.D. Murch, Novel frequency-domain equalization architectures for a single-carrier wireless MIMO system, in Proc. IEEE VTC2002-Fall, Sept. 2002. [7] N. Maeda, J. Kawamoto, H. Kawai, K. Higuchi, M. Sawahashi, M. Kimata, and S. Yoshida, QRM-MLD combined with MMSE-based multipath interference canceller for MIMO multiplexing in broadband DS-CDMA, in Proc. IEEE PIMRC2004, Sept. 2004. [8] H. Huang, S. Venkatesan, A. Kogiantis, and N. Sharma, Increasing the peak data rate of 3G downlink packet data systems using multiple antennas, in Proc. IEEE VTC2003-Spring, April 2003. [9] K. Higuchi, H. Kawai, N. Maeda, and M. Sawahashi, Adaptive selection of surviving symbol replica candidates based on maximum reliability in QRM-MLD for OFCDM MIMO multiplexing, in Proc. IEEE Globecom 2004, Nov. 2004. [10] 3GPP TSG RAN, Physical layer procedures (FDD) (Release 1999), 3G TS 25.214 [11] K. Higuchi, H. Kawai, N. Maeda, M. Sawahashi, T. Itoh, Y. Kakura, A. Ushirokawa, and H. Seki, Likelihood function for QRM-MLD suitable for soft-decision turbo decoding and its performance for OFCDM MIMO multiplexing in multipath fading channel, in Proc. IEEE PIMRC2004, Sept. 2004. [12] L.M. Correia, Wireless Flexible Personalized Communications, COST 259: European Co-operation in Mobile Radio Research, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.

per packet frame using OFDM access with QRM-MLD is decreased to approximately 19 (31)% and 37 (63)% for DS-CDMA access employing QRM-MLD with MPIC and SIC in the microcell (indoor) model, respectively. In conclusion, OFDM packet access is more promising than DS-CDMA packet access owing to its immunity to severe MPI for MIMO multiplexing from the viewpoints of the achievable throughput and the computational complexity of the signal detection in a MIMO receiver. V. CONCLUSION This paper compared the throughput performance and computational complexity of the signal detection part in a receiver between OFDM and DS-CDMA packet access using MIMO multiplexing in multipath fading channels. We employed the following signal detection methods: MLD using QR decomposition and the M-algorithm (QRM-MLD); an MMSE based equalizer; QRM-MLD combined with MPIC; and a serial interference canceller using MMSE equalizer with decisionfeedback data symbols after Turbo decoding. The computer simulation results showed that the achievable throughput in OFDM access using

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