FDD-LTE OFDM Technology

Contents

Basic Principle

Benefits and Drawbacks

Key Technologies

Application in DL

Application in UL

Radio Channel Characteristics

Multi-Path Effect

Time Dispersion causes ISI

(InterSymbol Interference
When Transmitter sends a
Pulse signal, the receiver
receives:

Power

Power

Time-Variant Channel
Doppler Shift is one form
Frequency Dispersion
causes ICI (InterChannel
Interference)

Transmitter
Frequency
Receiver

Time

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Frequency

What is OFDM ?

OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, is a kind of

multi-carrier transmission;

In frequency domain, OFDM divides channel into some subchannels overlapped between adjacent sub-channels. These
sub-channels are orthogonal.

Implement of CP can undermine ISI caused by Delay Spread

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OFDM Modulation and Demodulation

Modulation

Demodulation

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Multi-Path Effect
Path 1

Path 2

GI: guarding interval

The second symbol in Path 1 interferes

with the first symbol in Path 2

ISI (InterSymbol Interference) will occur because of multi-path effect

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If GI is Inserted
Path 1

Path 2
GI: Guarding Interval

GI

GI is inserted in order to eliminate ISI

When GI is longer than max delay spread of channel, the multi-path

component of a symbol doesnt interfere with next symbol

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ICI Brought by GI
Part of subcarrier 2 causing
ICI on subcarrier 1

subcarrier 1

Delayed subcarrier 2

GI

FFT IntegrationTime = 1/subcarrier spacing

CP: Cyclic Prefix

FFT integral time length cant contain the entire waves because GIs
are included. The orthogonality between subcarriers is detroyed.

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If CP is Inserted
Amplitude

CP

Time
GI

FFT Integral Time Length

OFDM Symbol Length

CP: Cyclic Prefix

CP refers to the prefixing of a symbol with a repetition of the end, in order that the orthogonality between
subcarriers is not undermined due to GI.

FFT integral time length can contain integer number of waveforms of subcarriers in multi-path, as long as time
delay of every path is less than GI.

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OFDM Principle Diagram

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OFDM Frequency-Time Structure

Each column corresponds to one OFDM symbol

Each row corresponds to one OFDM subcarrier

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OFDMA: Downlink multiple access

System Bandwidth
Sub-carriers

Sub-frame

Frequency

Time frequency
resource for User 1
Time frequency
resource for User 2

Time

Up to 64 QAM can be used

Resistance to multi-path interference by Cyclic Prefix.

Friendly to MIMO.

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Time frequency
resource for User 3

OFDM vs OFDMA

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Contents

Basic Principle

Benefits and Drawbacks

Key Technologies

Application in DL

Application in UL

OFDM Benefits

Dividing large bandwidth into small subcarriers, can be effectively against

frequency-selective fading

It can be effectively against ISI, so it is suitable for high-speed data transmission in multipath environment.

Spectrum efficiency is maximized. Because of the orthogonality between

subcarriers, adjancent subchannels overlap.

Modulation/demodulation can be achived by IFFT/FFT. Calculation is efficient

and simple.

It can achieve the different UL and DL transmission data rate by using different
number of subchannels.

It can take full advantage of high SNR subchannels to increase system

throughput by dynamic subchannel allocation.

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OFDM Drawbacks

Sensitive to frequency deviation:

Frequency shift occurred in transmission process(such as Doppler Shift),

or the frequency difference between a receiver local oscillator and the
carrier frequency of transmitter, would undermine the orthogonality
between subcarriers of OFDM system, leading to inter-channel signal
interference.

High PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio):

The output of OFDM modulation is the superposition of multiple subchannel. If the signal phases in multiple sub-channels are the same at a
certain time, superimposed signal instantaneous power will be far greater
than the signal average power, resulting in a high PAPR. High PAPR not
only brings higher requirements on transmitter Power Amplifier (PA)
linearity, but also reduces the amplifier efficiency.

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Contents

Basic Principle

Benefits and Drawbacks

Key Technologies

Application in DL

Application in UL

Channel Estimation and Reference Symbols

To estimate the frequency-domain channel tap directly by inserting reference

symbols(RS).

Using knowledge about the RS, the receiver can estimate the frequency-domain
channel around the location of the RS.

The reference symbols should have a sufficiently high density in both the time and the
frequency domain to estimate entire time/frequency grid.

One RB

TS36.211 DL RS, normal CP,1TX

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Frequency Interleaving

The consequence bits are spread entire the frequency band.

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AMC

AMC: Adaptive Modulation and Coding

OFDM can achieve dynamic adaption of the modulation sheme, coding

scheme and bit amount on every subcarrier according to the fading
situation of frequency-selective channel.

Thus great performance enhancements can be achived in OFDM system.

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Contents

Basic Principle

Benefits and Drawbacks

Key Technologies

Application in DL

Application in UL

OFDM Time-Frequency Structure

Resource Element

The smallest resource unit

Resource Block

Contains 12 subcarriers in
frequency domain

Contains 7 OFDM symbols in time

domain(6 OFDM symbols when
Extended CP is used)

1 RB :

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180kHz (i.e. 12 x 15KHz )in frequency

domain
0.5 ms (i.e. one slot)in time domain

Bandwidth Analysis
Nominal Bandwidth
(MHz)
Number of RB

1.4

10

15

20

15

25

50

75

100

1.08

2.7

4.5

13.5

18

Frequency Domain
Real Bandwidth
(MHz)

Bandwidth = Sub-frame x No. of sub-frame in each RB x No.

of RB
Bandwidth of one sub-frame = 15KHz
No. of sub-frame each RB = 12

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Contents

Basic Principle

Benefits and Drawbacks

Key Technologies

Application in DL

Application in UL

Why SC-FDMA?

OFDM:

High PAPR Lower PA (Power Amplifier) efficiency Lower battery

efficiency Not suitable for terminal

SC-FDMA (Single Carrier FDMA):

Lower PAPR Higher PA efficiency Longer battery life Suitable for

terminal

DFT-S-OFDM (DFT-Spread-OFDM) is the implementation method of SCFDMA in the frequency domain, which performs DFT-based precoding
before IFFT modulation in the OFDM modulation process.

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SC-FDMA: Uplink multiple access

System Bandwidth
Single Carrier

Sub-frame

Frequency

Time frequency
resource for User 1
Time frequency
resource for User 2

Time

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Time frequency
resource for User 3

Up to 16 QAM can be used

Single carrier modulation achieves

lower Peak to Average Ratio
(PAPR)

FDMA is efficiently achieved

through FFT operation

OFDMA and SC-FDMA Comparison

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DFT-S-OFDM Process

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OFDM vs DFT-S-OFDM

OFDM PAPR is far higher than DFT-S-OFDM

The higher modulation mode DFT-S-OFDM adopts, the higher PAPR it gets.

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Zero Fill
Localized DFTS-OFDM

The output of the DFT is mapped to

consecutive inputs of the IFFT.
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Localized DFTS-OFDM

The output of the DFT to equidistant inputs

of the IDFT with zeros inserted in between.

SD-FDMA Multiple Access

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Distributed DFT-S-OFDM Benefit/Drawback

Benefit of distributed DFT-S-OFDM

Possibility for additional frequency diversity as even a low-rate distributed

DFTS-OFDM signal (small DFT size M) can be spread over a potentially
very large overall BW.

Drawback of distributed DFT-S-OFDM

No single sub-carrier property

More sensitivity to frequency errors and has higher requirements on

power control

Localized DFT-S-OFDM is adopted in LTE UL.

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Summary

What is OFDM/OFDMA?

OFDM Benefits/Drawbacks?

Related Key Technologies?

Why SC-FDMA?

Difference between DFT-S-OFDM & OFDM?

DFT-S-OFDM Types?

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