1

OFDM Baseband Modulation Technology based on VHDL

Lin Lin
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine
Mechanics and Physics, Chinese
Academy of Sciences
Graduate School of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences
Changchun China; Beijing China
linlinat0218@yahoo.com.cn
Yan-feng Qiao
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine
Mechanics and Physics, Chinese
Academy of Sciences
Changchun China
qiaoyf@ciomp.ac.cn
Wan-xin Su
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine
Mechanics and Physics, Chinese
Academy of Sciences
Changchun China
swx123456@mail.jl.cn

AbstractIn order to improve the transmission velocity in
mulitipath fading wireless channel, the high speed OFDM
technology receives increasing attentions in mobile
communication. Modulation programs are designed with
VHDL based on the principle of OFDM in the paper. First,
after OFDM fundamental is introduced; two main advantages
are obtained via discussing spectrum utilization ratio of OFDM.
Then, from the results of VHDL simulation, the realization of
baseband operations, such as interleaver, subcarrier
modulation, IFFT and adding CP, are presented. Finally,
implemented programs are validated on the actual implement
system. Experimental results indicate that setup time
corresponding to transmission velocity is only 71.05s and
steady time is approximately 6 times as setup time, that is, not
only achieving the high speed transmission, but also supplying
adequate modulation time.
Keywords: OFDM; VHDL; Baseband Modulation
I. INTRODUCTION
The growth of mobile communications and wireless
internet access has produced a strong demand for advanced
wireless techniques. The challenges for wireless
communication designs come from the detrimental
characteristics of wireless environments, such as multipath
fading, Doppler Effect, co-channel interference, and
intentional jamming in military communications. The
objective of this paper is to provide an approach to solve the
problem of transmission velocity of multipath fading by
means of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(OFDM) [1][2].
OFDM is a special form of multicarrier modulation,
which was originally used in high frequency military radio.
An efficient way to implement OFDM by means of a discrete
Fourier transform (DFT) was found by Weinstein in 1971.
The computational complexity could be further reduced by a
fast Fourier transform (FFT). However, OFDM was not
popular at that time because the implementation of large-size
FFTs was still too expensive. Recent advances in VLSI
technologies have enabled cheap and fast implementation of
FFTs and IFFTs. In the 1980s, Cimini first investigated the
use of OFDM for mobile communications. Since then,
OFDM has become popular. In the 1990s, OFDM was
adopted in the standards of digital audio broadcasting (DAB),

978-1-4244-5848-6/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE
digital video broadcasting (DVB), asymmetric digital
subscriber line (ADSL), and IEEE802.11a. OFDM is also
considered in the new fixed broadband wireless access
system specifications [3] [4].
II. ALGORITHM BEHAVIOR
A. OFDM fundamental
Supposing N subchannels in OFDM system, one
subchannel uses one subcarrier
( ) ( )
k k k k
t f B t x t + = 2 cos ) 1 , , 1 , 0 ( = N k
(1)
where B
k
is amplitude of the kth subcarrier which decides
input code; f
k
is frequency of the kth subcarrier;
k
is initial
phase of the kth subcarrier [5]. The sum of N subcarriers is
provided
( ) ( )
_

=
+ =
1
0
2 cos
N
k
k k k
t f B t s t (2)
Rewriting (2) in complex field
( )
k k
t f j
N
k
k
e B t s
t +

=
_
=
2
1
0
&
(3)
where
k
B
&
is complex input of the kth subcarrier.
If frequency interval of adjacent subcarrier is Af = 1/T
and ) 2 /( ) ( T m k f
k
+ = ) 2 , 1 , 0 ( = m , arbitrary two
subcarriers is orthogonal in code duration T, that is
( ) ( )
)
= + +
T
i i k k
dt t f t f
0
0 2 cos 2 cos t t
(4)
where T n f f
i k
/ = ) 2 , 1 , 0 ( = n
and orthogonality is
independent of
k
and
i
. So this multicarrier system is
called orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.
Spectrum density of single subcarrier is showed as Fig.1.
Figure 1: Spectrum density of single subcarrier
f
fk+1/T
fk
2
Figure 2: Spectrum density of complex subcarriers
Because frequency interval of adjacent subcarrier is Af
= 1/T, spectrum density of complex subcarriers is showed as
Fig. 2.
There are two main advantages of the method: one is
that signal could make the most of frequency band; the other
is the flexibility of modulation of subcarriers.
B. OFDM spectrum utilization ratio
Supposing that N is the number of subcarriers, T is code
duration and M is modulated M-system of every subcarrier.
Frequency band width is
T
N
B
OFDM
1 +
= (5)
Utilization ratio of frequency band is transmitted bit
ratio of unit bandwidth
M
N
N
B T
M N
OFDM
BOFDM 2
2
log
1
1 log
+
= = q

(6)
when N converges at , M
BOFDM 2
log ~ q [6].
If a subcarrier adopts M-system code to transmit, in
order to obtain the same transmission velocity, utilization
ratio of frequency band is expressed by
M
N
T
T
M N
BM 2
2
log
2
1
2
log
= = q (7)
Comparing (6) and (7), OFDM technology makes
utilization ratio of frequency band approximately increase
twice times.
III. VHDL IMPLEMENT
VHDL is a hardware description language that describes
electron circuitry and systemic behaves. Based on the
description and interrelated software tools, one can gain
anticipant circuitry or system. In the article, ISE9.2i achieves
various operations of Virtex-5 FPGA such as program,
synthesis, implement, restriction and simulation.
Figure 3: Simulation results of time sequence of interleaver
Inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) is used to
modulate signal, since the expression of OFDM symbol is
like that of IDFT

1
(2 )
0
1
( ) ( )
K
j K nk
n
s k S n e
K
t

=
=
_

(8)
where k = 0, 1 K-1. Using K input codes in (2) to
substitute into K disperse values S(n), s(k) becomes s(t) of (2)
and
k
= 0.
This section presents VHDL implement results of
interleaver, subcarrier modulation, IFFT and adding CP.
Next, these will be discussed respectively.
A. Interleaver
Interleaver is to disperse lost information to decrease
error bit rate, in other words, when user information bits are
lost among transmission process, lost information is part bits
of some users, not all bits of one user and original
information can be recovered by the remaining information
[7]. The process of interleaver is that data are read from the
RAM where grouping data are stored, according to some rule.
Here data are across read with equal interval, and the interval
is 4. Simulation results are showed as Fig.3.
B. Subcarrier modulation
Subcarrier modulation mostly uses three modes that are
FSK (Frequency Shift Keying), PSK (Phase Shift Keying)
and MQAM (Multiple Quadrature Amplitude Modulation)
[8]. In the article employ BFSK (Binary Frequency Shift
Keying), QPSK (QuadriPhase Shift Keying) and 16QAM
(16-system QAM). Pilot modulation usually adopts BFSK
that f1 and f2 correspond to "0" and "1" in Fig.4. For QPSK,
phase 0, /4, /2 and 3/4 are denoted by code "00", "01",
"10" and "11", respectively, and simulation results of time
sequence are showed as Fig.5 (Maker region is the
waveforms of four phases). Frequency division and phase
shift of QPSK are realized by taking count of system clock.
MQAM is amplitude and phase keying system where
amplitude and phase are synchronously modulated as two
independent parameters. The kth code is denoted as
( ) ( ) ( )T k t kT t A t s
k k k
1 cos
0
+ s < + = u e
(9)
Figure 4: Simulation results of time sequence of BFSK
3
Figure 5: Simulation results of time sequence of QPSK
where k = 0,1,2,3, Ak and k can choose different
discrete values. When k is 0 or /2 and Ak is +A or A,
MQAM becomes QPSK, so QPSK is the simplest MQAM.
In vectorgraph, every spot expresses amplitude and phase of
one code, and MQAM signal is composed of two orthogonal
vectors as Fig.6. The real and imaginary part of the spot
express signal value has been modulated. Fig.7 shows
simulation plot of time sequence of 16QAM where relevant
spot is denoted by well-regulated combination of four values
-- "0000100000" (32), "0001100000" (96), "1111011111" (-
33) and "1110011111" (-97).
C. Realization of IFFT
Inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) is a fast realization
of IDFT and employs here. After mapping, data must be
from frequency domain to time domain via IFFT, and
synchronously accomplish OFDM modulation. The number
of spots is 256. Data of frequency domain have been on
corresponding subcarriers before IFFT. 256 subcarriers are
192 data subcarriers, 8 pilot subcarriers and 56 empty
subcarriers including 28 protective subcarriers in low
frequency region, 27 protective subcarriers in high frequency
region and one DC (Direct Current) subcarrier. Indexes of 8
pilot subcarriers are -88-63-38-13, 13, 38, 63, 88 [9].
Data subcarriers map according to arrowhead direction
from negative frequency to positive frequency as Fig.8. In
implement process, sequence number of IFFT module is 0
255, so subcarrier -128127 transform subcarrier 0255
based on periodicity of IFFT, where 0127 and 128255
are positive and negative frequency region, respectively.
The plot is showed as Fig. 9.

Figure 6: Vectorgraph of 16QAMand 64QAM
Figure 7: Simulation results of time sequence of 16QAM
-128

-101
-100

-89
-88
-87

-64
-63
-62

-39
-38
-37

-14
-13
-12

-1
0
1

12
13
13

37
38
39

62
63
64

87
88
89

100
101

127
data subcarriers mapping direction -128 127

Figure 8: OFDMsubcarriers mapping
0
1

12
13
14

37
38
39

62
63
64

87
88
89

100
101

127
128

155
156

167
168
169

192
193
194

217
218
64

87
219

242
243
244

255
data subcarriers mapping direction
0 255
positive frequency
region
negative frequency
region
Figure 9: Regulated OFDM subcarriers mapping
Figure 10: Simulation results of time sequence of adding CP (GI = 4)
Realization of IFFT makes use of Fast Fourier Transform
v5.0 that is an IP core of Xilinx ISE. Xilinx Co. supplies
partly free IP cores for users which can be used via setting
correlative parameters or making little modifications to save
logic resources of mapping, operate steadily and shorten
design period. Here FWD_INV = 0, FWD_INV_WE = 1,
NFFT = 64, 16, NFFT_WE = 1 and the others adopt defaults.
D. Adding CP
In OFDM systems, the entire channel is divided into N
narrow subchannels and the high-rate data are transmitted in
parallel through the subchannels at the same time. Therefore,
the symbol duration is N times longer than that of single-
carrier systems and the inter-symbol interference (ISI) is
reduced by N times. Through adding a cyclic prefix (CP)
ahead of each OFDM symbol, the ISI can be totally
suppressed as long as the length of CP T
g
is longer than the
maximum channel delay
max
. Usually the length of CP is
much smaller than the symbol duration; therefore, the
spectrum efficiency decrease is negligible. To preserve the
orthogonality, the subchannel spacing satisfies f = 1/ T
s
,
where T
s
is the OFDM symbol duration [10] [11].
However, introduced guard interval (GI) brings loss of
power and information velocity. The loss of power is
defined as
|
|
.
|

\
|
+ = 1 log 10
10
FFT
g
guard
T
T
v
(10)
where T
g
is the length of sample GIT
FFT
is the symbol
length of OFDM after FFT without GI. From (10), when GI
occupies 20%, the loss of power is no more than 1 dB, but
Ak
uk
4
the loss of power could achieve 20%. The cost is worthy
because of eliminated ISI. Simulation results of time
sequence of adding CP is showed as Fig.10.
IV. EXPERIMENT RESULTS
Fig.11 shows the actual implement system. The
implement results enumerated in Table 1 indicate that the
movement of programs is normal. Experiment conditions are
data transmission rate - 25Mb/s, mobile velocity - 400 km/h,
sampling frequency - 12.5MHz, FFT period - 3.84s, and CP
length - 0.96s. Noted, the mix of Table 1 is the combine of
16QAM, QPSK and BPSK.
When the modulation modes alternately use to adapt
channel change, setup and steady time is 71.05s and
440.03s respectively, in other words, implement system has
enough time to accomplish various baseband works and
operation velocity satisfies the request of high speed.
Moreover, memory resources consumed are only 7.6% and
CFOs (carrier frequency offsets) error is also accurate within
1% of the subcarrier spacing.
V. CONCLUSION
OFDM Baseband Modulation Technology mentioned in
the article, using VHDL as realization foundation reduces
setup time and increases steady time which make
complicated baseband works be accomplished well, and
whose validity and feasibility are proved through the ISE
simulation results and running on the actual implement
system, respectively. It is exhibited that setup time
corresponding to operation velocity is between 10 and 230s
improving approximately one order of magnitude and steady
time can arrives at 65.53 1223.65s. Next, much less
CFOs error will be researched with higher mobile velocity.
Figure 11: Implement system
TABLE I. EXPERIMENT RESULTS
modulation setup time
(s)
steady
time (s)
memory
resources (%)
CFOs
error
64QAM 213.23 1223.65 10.5% 0.00987
16QAM 55.74 381.77 7.8% 0.00966
QPSK 20.65 108.26 4.2% 0.00792
BPSK 12.33 65.53 2.0% 0.00654
mix 71.05
(average)
440.03
(average)
7.6%
(average)
0.00971
(average)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supposed by the National High Technology
Research and Development Program of China (863, No.
2008AA7034320B), and here thanks for constant guidance
of my advisors, Dr. Yan-feng Qiao and Wan-xin Su and
opportunity supplied by conference organizers.
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