2009 International Conference on Emerging Technologies
High Level Modeling of an Ultra Wide-Band
Baseband Transmitter in MATLAB
Waqas Ali Khan, Talha Ali Khan, Muhammad Arif Ali and Shahid Abbas
Final Year Students of Electronics Department
NED University of Engineering & Technology
Karachi, Pakistan
(waqas035, talha080, arifali137, shahid.nedian)@hotmail.com
AbstractWireless Personal Area Network ( WPAN ) system
with ranges of 4-10 m become popular in replacing wire system,
technologies such as Bluetooth and ZigBee used for this purpose
but due to its low data rate of 1 Mbps which is not enough for
large file transfer and applications like video streaming there is a
need of technology which address all these issues, Ultra
Wideband is such a emerging wireless technology which support
data rates up to 0.5 Gbps. UWB with its Multi-Band Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing ( MB-OFDM ) infrastructure is
an ultimate choice for the transmission of high speed data by
dividing its wide frequency spectrum into sub 14-bands. The
architecture of MB-OFDM transmitter baseband is presented in
this paper and its modeling in MATLAB is discussed in detail.
Modeling of UWB PHY transmitter baseband in MATLAB is
helpful for designing its commercial product by optimizing
various parameters.
I. INTRODUCTION
In February 2002, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) allocated a large spectrum from 3.1 GHz
to 10.6 GHz for use of commercial applications of UWB.
Since then great efforts are made in standardization of UWB
devices. The IEEE 802.15.3 Task Group ( TG3a ) is set for
proposing final draft for UWB standards, the committee finals
two drafts one proposed UWB using direct sequence CDMA
supported by Xtreme Spectrum and Deca Wave and other is
UWB using MB-OFDM base structure supported by Intel and
Texas but deadlock arises between these two. So group of
more than 170 companies which includes Intel, Texas and
Motorola and many others forms a forum with the name of
WiMedia Alliance for the development of UWB system using
multi-band ofdm structure which announces its High Rate
Ultra Wideband MAC and PHY standards which is also
supported by ECMA by releasing two international ISO based
specifications ECMA 368 and ECMA 369 for Ultra Wideband
technology. Also, in 2007 IEEE 802.15 Task Group (TG4a)
approved a standard which support UWB infrastructure using
Direct sequence CDMA spread spectrum approach.
Ultra Wideband with its absolute bandwidth of more than
500 MHz and with its low transmitting power provides wealth
of advantages better than any communication system
because these two features provides high accuracy and
friendly coexistence with other communication system, to
fulfill these requirements many wireless protocols have been
978-1-4244-5632-1/09/$26.00 2009 IEEE 194
designed but Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) has become the ultimate choice for modulation
scheme for high data rate digital transmission due to its
spectral efficiency and robustness against multipath
interference.
In multi-band OFDM approach the large swaths of ultra
wideband frequency spectrum is divided into fourteen smaller
subbands, each of 528 MHz which is further grouped into five
bands each of which comprises of three subbands and the last
one consists of two subbands as see in Fig. 1. The MB-OFDM
UWB system also supports multiples modes of operation: a
mandatory mode in which first three subbands are included
(Mode 1) and an optional mode which consist of seven
subbands (Mode 2).
The remaining paper is organized as follows Section 2
provides a brief overview on the architecture of the baseband
portion of MB-OFDM transmitter. The modeling of building
blocks of MB-OFDM transmitter is discussed in detail in
Section 3. Finally some concluding remarks and future work is
discussed in Section 4.
II. ARCHITECTURE OF MB-OFDM TRANSMITTER BASEBAND
Basic building blocks of MB-OFDM transmitter baseband
is shown in Figure 2. Data from MAC is coming to side
stream scrambler which function isto randomizes the data
stream to remove repeated patterns and spaces, after which
incoming data are encoded to reduce the bit error rate. The
main purpose isto correct the error that are arises due to the
channel, convolutional encoder is suitable for this purpose
with coding rate of 5/8 which is acquired by puncturering
some data. The stream of data then shall be interleaved prior
to modulation to provide robustness against burst of errors.
After coding and interleaving serial binary data divided
into group of two bits which is converted into complex valued
constellation points which becomes input to the IFFT which is
the core of baseband portion of transmitter. A 128 point IFFT
is used to create 122 subcarriers out of which 12 are pilot
subcarriers, 100 data subcarriers and 10 are guard subcarriers,
five at each end. The rest six are set to null subcarriers. To
compensate for multipath propagation and to eliminate ISI a
Zero pad suffix of length 37 is added. Table 1. summarizes the
parameters related to ultra wideband MB-OFDM modulation.
 Figure 1. Division of UWB Frequency Spectrum
III . TRANSMITTER BASEBAND DESIGN IN MATLAB
Matlab is a high level technical computing language which
provide interactive envoirment for algorithm development and
modeling of communication system. Also integration of
Simulink with Matlab offer various tools for simulating and
testing any communication system. UWB with transfer data
rate of 200 Mbps is modeled. Below is the description of the
UWB Model proposed in Simulink.
A. Input of the Transmitter / Scrambler
Input source for the scrambler is the data from MAC Layer
which includes MAC Header , HCS and MAC frame body,
since the coming data is in the pattern of 1s and 0s so it can
be modeled by any data source which can create a pattern of
1s and 0s. A Maximum Length Sequence (MLS) is used for
this purpose which is the type of pseudorandom binary
sequence. They are polynomial rings generated using maximal
linear feedback shift registers and are so called because they
are periodic and reproduce every binary sequence that can be
reproduced by the shift registers. The polynomial used for this
purpose is defined by expression as follows;
HCS, and the entire PSDU.
In addition, the scrambler shall be initialized to a seed
value specified by the MAC at the beginning of the MAC
header and then re-initialized to the same seed value at the
beginning of the PSDU.
The polynomial generator, g(D), for the pseudo-random
binary sequence (PRBS) generator shall be;
g(D) = 1 + D14 + D15 (2)
Where D is a single bit delay element and integers in the
power of D represent connection of shift register with modulo
2 adder. Using this generator polynomial, the corresponding
PRBS, xn , is generated as;
xn = xn-14 xn-15 (3)
The scrambled data bits sn are obtained as follows;

f(x) xx

In Matlab there is a builtin block of PN SEQUENCE
GENERATOR which has a parameters of generator
polynomomial and initial states of shift registers which in our
case become [ 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 ] and [ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1].
B. Scrambler
A scrambler (often referred to as a randomizer) is a device
that manipulates a data stream before transmitting. The
purpose of scrambling is to eliminate the dependence of a
signals power spectrum upon the actual transmitted data and
making it more disperse to meet maximum power spectral
density requirements, because if the power is concentrated
in a narrow frequency band, it can interfere with adjacent
channels. A side-stream scrambler shall be used to whiten
only portions of the PLCP header , i.e., the MAC header and
Scrambler FEC Encoder Puncturer
OFDM
Modulator (IFFT Mapper Interleaver
& ZPS )
Figure 2. Basic Architecture of MB-OFDM Transmitter Baseband
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sn = bn xn (4)
where bn are unscrambled data bits.
In Matlab there is a block of scrambler with a parameter of
scramble polynomial and initial states. Scramble polynomial is
defined by 2 and the initial states represents the states of
scrambler register when simulation starts.
C. FEC Encoder ( Convolutional Encoder )
Convolutional Coding is a part of the Forward Error
Correction (FEC) done in communication systems. The
purpose of forward error correction (FEC) is to improve the
capacity of a channel by adding some carefully designed
redundant information to the data being transmitted through
the channel. The process of adding this redundant information
is known as channel coding .
Convolutional codes operate on serial data, one or a few
bits at a time. The two parameters which defined
convolutional codes are : the code rate and the constraint
length, the code rate is defined as the ratio of number of bits
into the convolutional encoder to the number of channel
symbols output by the convolutional encoder in a given
encoder cycle. The constraint length, k, denotes the length
of the convolutional encoder.
 TABLE 1. PARAMETERS OF MB-OFDM MODULATION
Parameters
NSD : Number of Data Subcarrier
NSP : Number of Pilot Subcarrier
NSG : Number of Guard carriers
NST : Number of total Subcarrier
Number of Null carriers used
Number of Samples per zero padding suffix
Total Number of samples per symbol
Subcarrier Modulation
TSYM : Symbol Interval
Code Rate
E. Interleaver
Values In MB-OFDM system we perform two types of
100 interleaving: symbol interleaving and tone interleaving as see
12 in Figure 4. In Symbol interleaving bits of stream are
10 interleaved over three OFDM symbol to acquire different level
122 of frequency diversity because each OFDM symbol is
6 transmitted in different frequency bands. The symbol
37 interleaver works on 3NCBPS bits where NCBPS is the number of
165 coded bits per OFDM symbol which in our case is 200. If A(i)
QPSK and B(j) represent the input and output bits of the symbol
312.5 ns interleaver respectively at position j, the relationship between
1/3. 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 11/32 the two is given by;

In the proposed design of our model of UWB for 200
Mbps according to the defined standard the code rate is 5/8
which is obtained by combining five encoder with a rate of /3
(known as mother rate) and by puncturering some output bits.
The constraint length parameter k is 7. The generator
polynomial define for UWB are g0 = 1338, g1 = 1658 and g2 =
1718, these numbers are in octet system which is converted to
binary number system where in binary number if bit is 1 then
it shows the connection of that register with modulo addition
and if bit is 0 then register is not connected with shift registers
as shown in Figure 3. The bit denoted as A shall be the first
bit generated by the encoder, followed by the bit denoted as
B, and finally, by the bit denoted as C. The Convolutional
Encoder block in Matlab has a parameter of Trellis structure
which is define by poly2trellis command which has two
arguments constraint length and code generator polynomial
which is defined above. Poly2trellis command create a trellis
diagram which is best representation for convolutional
encoding. The operation mode is selected Terminate trellis
by appending bitsby pop down menu which terminate the
trellis at the all zero state by appending tail bits at the end of
each input frame.
D. Puncturer
The principle of puncturing is a process by which a few
parity bits are deleted in order to improve the code rate. In
Matlab the puncture block creates an output vector by
removing selected elements of the input vector and preserving
others. The input can be a real or complex vector of length K.
The block determines which elements to remove or preserve by
using the binary Puncture vector parameter. If Puncture vector
(k) = 0, then the kth element of the input vector does not
become part of the output vector and If Puncture vector (k) = 1,
then the kth element of the input vector is preserved in the
output vector. Since the input is frame base therefore puncture
vector must be multiple of it.
B(j) = A{ floor( i/NCBPS ) + 3mod( i, NCBPS ) } (5)
Where i, j = 0, 1, 2 .NCBPS.
The output B(j) from symbol interleaver is passed through
tone interleaver. Tone interleaver is then used to interleave bits
in each OFDM symbol to exploit frequency diversity across
tones and provide robustness against narrow band interferers. If
C(i) and D(j) represents inputs and outputs of tone interleaver
respectively, the relationship between them is given by;
D(j) = C{ floor( i/N ) + 10mod( i, N ) } (6)
Where N = NCBPS/10
i, j = 0, 1, 2, NCBPS
Matrix interleaver blocks has a parameters of number of
columns and number of rows which in our case become 100
and 3 respectively for symbol interleaver and for tone
interleaver it becomes 10 and 10. Buffer block is also used to
scale up the matrix size at the beginning of symbol interleaver
and at the end of matrix interleaver, buffer block is also used
in the mid position to scale down the dimension of data matrix
to make correct input dimensions for tone interleaver.
F. SubCarrier Modulator (QPSK Modulator Baseband)
For data rates less than or equal to 200 Mbps preferred
subcarrier modulation is QPSK and for data rate greater than
200 Mbps Dual carrier modulation (DCM) is preferred. Since
our proposed UWB system is for 200 Mbps so we use QPSK
baseband modulator. The serial binary data from the
interleaver shall be grouped into two bits and converted into
complex numbers representing QPSK Constellation points.
The conversion shall be performed according to the Gray-
coded constellation mappings. The values, d, are formed by
multiplying the resulting (I + jQ) value by a normalization
factor of KMOD, as described in (7);

Figure 4. A block diagram of the various stages of the bit interleaver

Figure 3. Convolutional encoder : rate R = 1/3, constraint length k = 7

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 TABLE 2. QPSK CARRIER MAPPING

Input bit ( b0b1 ) I-out Q-out

00 -1 -1

01 -1 1

10 1 -1

11 1 1

Figure 5. Implementation of Bit Interleaver in Matlab then Concatenate into single dimension by using MATRIX
CONCATENATE block. Channel Estimation Sequence block
d = ( I + jQ )*KMOD (7) is then concatenate with the output of the MATRIX
CONCANTENATE block. After the construction of
signalinverse fast fourier transform is applied by using builtin
where KMOD = Normailzation Factor = 1 / 2 block of the IFFT in Matlab, Packet Synchronization
Sequence and Frame sequence is added concatenate with the
For QPSK, bo determines the I value and b1 determines the output of the IFFT by again using MATRIX
Q value. Matlab has builtin QPSK baseband modulator block CONCATENATE block. Zero padding suffix and guard
with parameters Input type, Constellation ordering and phase interval is added in the last so we get a [ 165 x 1 ] length of an
offset which we set Bit , Gray and pi/4 respectively in our OFDM signal which is our requirement.
case.
G. OFDM Modulator TABLE 3. FREQUNCY OFFSET INDICES
This is the core block of MB-OFDM Transmitter Base
band. In this block construction of an OFDM signal and IFFT MD[l] MG[l] MP[l]
operation takes place. OFDM Signal can be described by the l 56 ; l=0 -61 + l ; -55 + 10*l ; l = 0, 1, 2, 3,,11
(8); l =0.4
l 55 ; 1 l 9 52 + l ;
l =5.9
Sn[k]=1/NFFT [ CD,n[l]exp(j2*pi*MD[l]k/NFFT)+ CG,n[l] l 54 ; 10 l 18
exp(j2*pi*MG[l]k/NFFT)+ CP,n[l]exp(j2*pi*MP[l]k/NFFT)] (8) l 53 ; 19 l 27
l 52 ; 28 l 36
where limit of first is [0,NSD 1] , limit of second is l 51 ; 37 l 45
[0, NSG 1] and the last one has a limit [0,NSP 1] and k [0,
l 50 ; 46 l 49
NFFT 1]. CD,n[l] , CG,n[l] and CP,n[l] are the complex numbers
placed on the lth data,guard and the pilot subcarriers of nth l 49 ; 50 l 53
OFDM symbol and MD[l],MG[l] and MP[l] define a mapping l 48 ; 54 l 62
from the indices [0,NSD 1], [ 0, NSG 1] and [0,NSP 1] to l 47 ; 63 l 71
the logical frequncy offset indices as defined in Table 3. In
l 46 ; 72 l 80
baseband portion data is transmitted from Physical Service
Data Unit (PSDU) to PLCP Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), l 45 ; 81 l 89
which comprises of PLCP Preamble, PLCP Header and l 44 ; 90 l 98
PSDU, PLCP Header and PSDU is modeled as the input l 43 ; l = 99
source of the transmitter because they need scrambling now
we modeled PLCP Preamble which comprises of Packet
Synchronization Sequence, Frame Synchronization Sequence H. Simulation Results
and Channel Estimation Sequence which is modeled in Matlab
by creating a matrix of [123x9], [128x3] and [128x6] with Transmitted OFDM signal can be viewed using SCOPE
values defined in [5]. After constellation mapping of a signal block whose snapshot is shown in Fig. 6.
its enter into the Modulator Subsystem where its first passes
through the Group data for OFDM Symbol block which IV . CONCLUSION
reshape the signal after then its indices is converted into
logical frequency offset with the help of SELECT ROW In this model, we proposed architecture of MB-OFDM
block, also Pilot signal and Null carriers are added to it which UWB baseband transmitter. Power Spectrum of Transmitter
is modeled by using DSP CONSTANT block and their values shows in Figure 6. that it fulfill the FCC standards for UWB
are defined in the parameters of the block, all these signals are System. By changing code rate and subcarrier modulator
block, we can model this system for various data rates for

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UWB system. Thus this model provides good basis for
implementing an ASIC for proposed design in future.

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Figure 6. OFDM Transmitted Signal

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