Multi-Carrier Transmission

over Mobile Radio Channels

Jean-Paul M.G. Linnartz
Nat.Lab., Philips Research

Outline

Introduction to OFDM
Introduction to multipath reception
Discussion of receivers for OFDM and MC-CDMA
Introduction to Doppler channels
Intercarrier Interference, FFT Leakage
New receiver designs
Simulation of Performance
Conclusions

OFDM

OFDM: a form of MultiCarrier Modulation.

Different symbols are transmitted over different subcarriers
Spectra overlap, but signals are orthogonal.
Example: Rectangular waveform -> Sinc spectrum

I-FFT: OFDM Transmission

Transmission of QAM symbols on parallel subcarriers
Overlapping, yet orthogonal subcarriers

cos( ct+ i st)

cos( ct+ (N-1) st)

Parallel-toSerial

cos( ct+ st)

I-FFT

cos( ct)
Serial-toParallel

Serial-toparallel

User
symbols

OFDM Subcarrier Spectra

OFDM signal strength versus
frequency.
Rectangle <- FFT -> Sinc
before channel

after channel

Frequency

Applications
Fixed / Wireline:
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Mobile / Radio:
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)
Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T)
Hiperlan II
Wireless 1394
4G (?)

The Wireless Multipath Channel

The Mobile Multipath Channel

Delay spread

Doppler spread

Time

FT

FT
Frequency

Time

Frequency
Frequency

Effects of Multipath Delay and Doppler

Frequency

OFDM

Time

Wideband
QAM
Time

Time

Narrowband

Frequency

Frequency

Effects of Multipath (II)

Frequency

+
Frequency

MC-CDMA

Time

+
+
+
+

Frequency
Hopping
Time

Time

DS-CDMA

+ -

+ -

+ -

+ -

Frequency

Multi-Carrier CDMA
Various different proposals.
(1) DS-CDMA followed by OFDM
(2) OFDM followed by DS-CDMA
(3) DS-CDMA on multiple parallel carriers
First research papers on system (1) in 1993:
Fettweis, Linnartz, Yee (U.C. Berkeley)
Fazel (Germany)
Chouly (Philips LEP)

System (2): Vandendorpe (LLN)

System (3): Milstein (UCSD); Sourour and Nakagawa

Multi-Carrier CDM Transmitter

S/P N
B

Code
Matrix
C

I-FFT

P/S

What is MC-CDMA (System 1)?

a form of Direct Sequence CDMA, but after spreading a Fourier
Transform (FFT) is performed.
a form of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM),
but with an orthogonal matrix operation on the bits.
a form of Direct Sequence CDMA, but the code sequence is the
Fourier Transform of the code.
a form of frequency diversity. Each bit is transmitted
simultaneously (in parallel) on many different subcarriers.

MC-CDM (Code Division Multiplexing) in Downlink

In the forward or downlink (base-to-mobile): all signals originate at
the base station and travel over the same path.
One can easily exploit orthogonality of user signals. It is fairly
simple to reduce mutual interference from users within the same
cell, by assigning orthogonal Walsh-Hadamard codes.

BS
MS 1

MS 2

Synchronous MC-CDM receiver

S/P N

FFT

Weigh N
Matrix
W
A

I-Code
Matrix
C-1

The MC-CDM receiver

separates the various subcarrier signals (FFT)
weights these subcarriers in W, and
does a code despreading in C-1:
(linear matrix over the complex numbers)
Compare to C-OFDM:
W := equalization or AGC per subcarrier
C-1 := Error correction decoder (non-linear operation)

P/S

Synchronous MC-CDM receiver

S/P N

FFT

Weigh N
Matrix
W
A

I-Code
Matrix
C-1

P/S

Receiver strategies (How to pick W ?)

equalization (MUI reduction) w = 1/
maximum ratio combining (noise reduction) w =
Wiener Filtering (joint optimization) w = /( c
Next step: W can be reduced to an automatic gain control, per
subcarrier, if no ICI occurs

Synchronous MC-CDM receiver

S/P N

FFT

Weigh
Matrix
W

I-Code
Matrix
C-1

P/S

Optimum estimate per symbol B is obtained from B = EB|Y

= C-1EA|Y = C-1A.

Thus: optimum linear receiver can implement FFT - W - C-1

Orthogonality Principle: E(A-A)YH = 0N, where A = WYH
Wiener Filtering: W = E AYH (EYYH)-1
EAYH diagonal matrix of signal power
EYYH diagonal matrix of signal plus noise power
W can be reduced to an AGC, per subcarrier

*
*

N0
Ts

MC-CDM BER analysis

Rayleigh fading channel
Exponential delay spread
Doppler spread with uniform angle of arrival

Perfect synchronisation
Perfect channel estimation, no estimation of ICI
Orthogonal codes
Pseudo MMSE (no cancellation of ICI)

Composite received signal

Wanted signal
T
x0 b0 s
N

N 1

n 0

n,n wn,n

m,n wn ,n c0 [n ]c0 [n m ]

m 0 n 0
N 1

Multi-user Interference (MUI)

x MUI

N 1

N 1

Ts bk n ,n wn ,n c0 [n ]ck [n ]
k 1 n 0

Intercarrier interference (ICI)

x ICI Ts

N 1

a n n ,n wn ,n c0 [n ]

n 0

Composite received signal

Wanted signal
T
x0 b0 s
N

N 1

n,n wn,n

n 0

Multi-User Interference (MUI)

2
MUI
E ch E x MUI x *MUI

Ts2
2

N 1

k 1

bk2

E ch

n,n wn,n n,n wn,n

nA

nA

Intercarrier interference (ICI)

2
ICI

1 N 1 2
E bk
N k 1

c0 ( n ) c k ( n m )

E ch

N 1

N 1

n 0

m,n E ch wn,n

n 0

BER for MC-CDMA

Avg. BER

10-1

(4)

BER for BPSK versus Eb/N0

OFDM

10-2

(5)

10-3

(1)
(2)

10-4
10-5

(3)

AWGN
5

10

15

Local-mean En/N0
Eb/N0Eb/No (dB)

Local-mean Eb/N0

(1) 8 subcarriers
(2) 64 subcarriers
(3) infinitely many subcarriers
(4) 8 subc., short delay spread
(5) 8 subc., typical delay spread

Capacity
relative to non-fading channel
Coded-OFDM

MC-CDM

same as N fading channels

N0
N
exp 0
P0Ts
0 P0Ts

COFDM 2

COFDM

N0
1
exp
ln 2
2 P0Ts

1 log
2
2

N0
E1
2 P0Ts

1 2 x dx

Data Processing Theorem:

COFDM = CMC-CDM
In practise, we loose a little.
In fact, for infinitely many
subcarriers,

CMC-CDM = log2(1 + P0Ts/N0).

For large P0Ts/N0 on a Rayleigh
fading channel, OFDM has 0.4
bit less capacity per dimension
than a non-fading channel.

where is MC-CDM figure of

merit, typically -4 .. -6 dB.

Capacity
7

Non-fading,
LTI

Rayleigh

Capacity: Bits per Subcarrier

MC-CDM
3

-* : Rayleigh

* : MC-CDMA
- : LTI
0
-5

10

15

20

Local-mean En/N0 (dB)

25

30

35

40

Capacity per dimension versus local-mean EN/N0,

no Doppler.

OFDM and MC-CDMA in a

rapidly time-varying channel
Doppler spread is the Fourier-dual of a delay
spread

Doppler Multipath Channel

Describe the received signal with all its
delayed and Doppler-shifted
components
Compact this model into a convenient
form, based on time-varying
amplitudes.
Make a (discrete-frequency) vector
channel representation
Exploit this to design better receivers

Mobile Multipath Channel

Collection of reflected waves,
each with
random angle of arrival
random delay

Angle of arrival is uniform

Doppler shift is cos(angle)
Doppler Spectrum

U-shaped power density

spectrum

ICI caused by Doppler

0

P0

10

-1

P1

Power, Variance of ICI

Power or variance of ICI

10

10

10

10

P2

P3

-2

3rd tier subcarrier

2nd tier subcarrier
Neighboring subcarrier

-3

-4

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

Normalized Doppler [fm/fsub]

Doppler spread / Subcarrier Spacing

BER in a mobile channel

10

10

Local-mean BER for

BPSK, versus antenna
speed.
Local mean SNR of 10,
20 and 30 dB.
Comparison between MCCDMA and uncoded OFDM
for fc = 4 GHz
Frame durationTs= 896s
FFT size: N = 8192.
Sub. spacing fs = 1.17 kHz

-1

OFDM, 10 dB

10

-2

MC-CDMA, 10 dB

Local-Mean BER for BPSK

OFDM, 20 dB
10

-3

OFDM, 30 dB
10

-4

MC-CDMA, 20 dB
10

10

30 dB

-5

-6

Data rate 9.14 Msymbol/s.

10

-7

10

15

20

25

30

35

Antenna Speed (m/s)

Antenna Speed [m/s]

40

Doppler Multipath Channel

Received signal r(t)

r (t )

N 1 I w 1

an Di exp{ j ( c n s )(t Ti ) j i t} n(t )

n 0 i 0

Channel model:
Iw reflected waves have
the following properties:
Di is the amplitude
I is the Doppler shift
Ti is the delay

OFDM parameters:
N is the number of subcarriers
Ts is the frame duration
an is the code-multiplexed data
c is the carrier frequency
s is the subcarrier spacing

Taylor Expansion of Amplitude

r (t )

N 1 I w 1

an Di exp{ j ( c n s )(t Ti ) j i t} n(t )

n 0 i 0

Rewrite the Channel Model as follows

N 1

r (t )

a nVn (t ) exp{ j ( c n s )t} n(t )

n 0

Tayler expansion of the amplitude

Vn(t) = vn(0)+ vn(1) (t-t) + vn(2) (t-t)2/2 + .. .
vn(q) : the q-th derivative of amplitude wrt time, at instant t = t.
vn(p) is a complex Gaussian random variable.

vn( q )

I w 1

j i q Di exp{ j ( c n s )Ti j i t }

i 0

Random Complex-Gaussian Amplitude

It can be shown that for p + q is even

E vn( p ) vm*( q )

2f D

pq

(1) q j p q

( p q 1)!!
( p q )!! 1 j (n m)Trms s

and 0 for p + q is odd.

This defines the covariance matrix of subcarrier amplitudes and
derivatives,
allows system modeling and simulation between the input of the
transmit I-FFT and output of the receive FFT.

DF Vector Channel Model

Received signal Y = [y0, y1, yN-1 ],

ym

N 1

n 0

a n exp j s t f n

vn( q ) n( q)m T q

q 0

q!

Lets ignore
f : frequency offset
t : timing offset
We will denote = (0) and = (1)
For integer , :: 0 (orthogonal subcarriers)
models ICI following from derivatives of amplitudes
0 does not carry ICI but the wanted signal

nm

System constants
(eg sinc) determined
by waveform
Complex amplitudes
and derivatives

DF-Domain Simulation
Simulation of complex-fading amplitudes of a Rayleigh
channel with Doppler and delay spread
Pre-compute an N-by-N matrix U, such that UUH is the channel
covariance matrix with elements n,m = Evn(0)vm*(0)
Simply use an I-FFT, multiply by exponential delay profile and FFT

Generate two i.i.d vectors of complex Gaussian random variables,

G and G, with unity variance and length N.
Calculate V = U G.
Calculate V(1) = 2fT U G.

DF Vector Channel Model

Received signal Y = [y0, y1, yN-1 ],

Y 0 I N

0
1

0
3 1
..
..

N 1 N 2

V .* A
3
TN

V '. * A
User data
.. N 1
.. N 2
..
..

.. 0

Amplitudes & Derivatives

FFT leakage

models ICI following from derivatives of amplitudes

0 does not carry ICI but the wanted signal

Possible Receiver Approaches

Receiver
1) Try to invert adaptive matrix (Alexei Gorokhov)
0 DIAG(V ) DIAG(V (1) )

2) See it as Multi-user detection: (J.P. Linnartz, Ton Kalker)

try to separate V .* A and V(1).* A

Y 0 I N

V .* A
V ' . * AT N

3) Decision Feedback (Jan Bergmans)

estimate iteratively V, V (1) and A

Receiver 1: Matrix Inversion

Estimate amplitudes V and complex derivatives V (1)
create the matrix Q1 = DIAG(V)+ T DIAG(V(1))
Invert Q1 to get Q1-1 (channel dependent)
Compute Q1-1Y
V

x
A

Zero-forcing:

X2

X1
X3

-1

Q
V

Slicer

Channel
Estimator

For perfect estimates V and V (1), Q1-1Y = A + Q1-1N,

i.e., you get enhanced noise.

MMSE Wiener filtering inversion W

Receiver 1: MMSE Matrix Inversion

Receiver sees Y = Q A + N, with Q=DIAG(V)+ T DIAG(V(1))
Calculate matrix Q = DIAG(V)+ T DIAG(V(1))
Compute MMSE filter W = QH [Q QH + n2 IN]-1.

Performance evaluation:
Signal power per subcarrier
Residual ICI and Noise enhancement from W

Receiver 1: Matrix Inversion

10

Amplitudes

-10

Determined by speed of antenna,

and carrier frequency

Magnitude in dB

-20

-30

First derivatives

-40

-50

-60

-70

Amplitudes
Derivatives

-80

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Subcarrier number

Simulation of channel for N = 64, v = 200 km/h fc = 17 GHz, TRMS =

1 s, sampling at T = 1s. fDoppler = 3.14 kHz, Subcarrier spacing
fsr = 31.25 kHz, signal-to-ICI = 18 dB

Receiver 1: Matrix Inversion

SNR of decision variable. Simulation for N = 64, MMSE Wiener
filtering to cancel ICI
30
Conventional OFDM
MMSE equalization

25

MMSE ICI canceller

Output SINR

20

15

Conventional OFDM

10

10

20

30
Subcarrier number

40

50

60

70

Performance of (Simplified) Matrix Inversion

Output SINR

30

MMSE

25

k=4
20

Conv
OFDM

15
10
5
0

Conventional OFDM
MMSE equalization
simplified MMSE

10

15

20

N = 64, v = 200 km/h, fc = 17 GHz, TRMS = 1 s, sampling at T = 1s.

fDoppler = 3.15 kHz, Subc. spacing fsr = 31.25 kHz:
Compare to DVB-T: v = 140 km/h, fc = 800MHz: fdoppler = 100 Hz while fsr = 1.17 kHz

25

30

Input SNR

Receiver 1: Subconclusion
Performance improvement of 4 .. 7
Complexity can be reduced to ~2kN, k ~ 5 .. 10.
Estimation of V(1) to be developed, V is already being
estimated

Receiver 3: Decision Feedback

Estimate
data,
amplitudes and
derivatives
iteratively

Receiver 3: Decision Feedback

Iteratively do the following:
Compare the signal before and after the slicer
Difference = noise + ICI + decision errors
Invert to retrieve modulated derivatives from ICI
V(1).*A = -1 ICI
MMSE to minimize noise enhancements
Remove modulation 1/A
Smooth to exploit correlation in V(1)
Modulate with A
Feed through to estimate ICI
Subtract estimated ICI

Receiver 3: DFE
Estimate V(1) in side chain
V

x
A

X2

X1
X3

Cancel
Doppler

+
N

Y0

Pilot

Estimated Amplitudes

V
Y2

Slicer

+-

ICI

A.*V

Z6

M6

Channel Model
Z9 =V
Z10

Z7
Z8

1/A

M7
INT

Performance of Receiver 3: DFE

10

10
Variance New System 3

Variance of decision variable

in DFE receiver after ICI cancelling

Variance of decision variable after iterative ICI

cancellation versus variance in conventional receiver

10

10

10

10

-1

-2

-3
-2

10

10

-1

10
Variance Conventional

10

10

Variance decision variable in conventional receiver

Receiver 3: DFE
Decision Feedback
Sample run N=64 9 errors -> 4 errors

10

Amplitudes
5

Error Count
Amplitude

0
-5

Derivatives

-10
-15
-20
-25
-30

10

20

30
40
Subcarrier Number

50

60

70

N = 64 out of 8192 subcarriers, v = 30 m/s, fc = 600 MHz TRMS / NT= 0.03,

fDoppler = 60 Hz, Subcarrier spacing fsr = 1.17 kHz

Conclusions
Modeling the Doppler channel as a set of time-varying subcarrier
amplitudes leads to useful receiver designs.
Estimation of V(1) is to be added, V is already being estimated
Basic principle demonstrated by simulation
Gain about
3 .. 6dB,
factor of 2 or more in uncoded BER,
factor 2 or more in velocity.
Promising methods to cancel FFT leakage (DVB-T, 4G)

More at http://wireless.per.nl

Further Research Work

Optimise the receiver design and estimation of derivatives
Can we play with the waveform (or window) to make the tails of the
filter steeper?
Can we interpret the derivatives as a diversity channel?
Can estimation of derivatives be combined with synchronisation?
Isnt this even more promising with MC-CDMA?
Apply it to system design.