Diplomarbeit

Implementation of a WiMAX simulator

in Simulink

Ausgeführt zum Zwecke der Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines

Diplom-Ingenieurs unter Leitung von

Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Markus Rupp

Dipl.-Ing. Christian Mehlführer

E389
Institut für Nachrichtentechnik und Hochfrequenztechnik

eingereicht an der Technischen Universität Wien

Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik

von

Amalia Roca
Matrikelnr.: 0526852
San Antonio 4, 12596 Torreblanca
Castellón - Spain

Vienna, February 2007 ...................

I certify that the work presented in this diploma thesis was done by myself
and the work of other authors is properly cited.

Amalia Roca
Vienna, February 2007

i
 Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge many people who helped me during the course
of this work, supporting it in one way or another. First and foremost, my
appreciation and thanks go to my family. In particular, I can never thank my
parents enough for their commitment, sacrifice, and overalls, their consistent
encouragement and support.
I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Christian Mehlführer,
for his seasoned guidance. Without his helpful suggestions this thesis could
not be done. I also want to thank the people I met during my stay in Vienna
and my colleagues at UPV for their friendship, help, and cheerfulness. I
could not possibly forget M.J, and C. and the rest of A.C. Thank you for
your support when my confidence was down.
Last, but not least, I want to mention A.F., who would be very proud of
me to see that, at the end, all the efforts have their recompense.

ii
 Abstract

In the last few years, the telecommunication industries’ development has

focused on an intensive use of broadband systems, which are characterized by
high quality features. For this issue, new technologies with high transmission
abilities have been designed. The broadband wireless access has become the
best way to meet escalating business demand for rapid internet connection
and integrated "triple play" services. In addition to not only topographic
but also technological limitations, wireless solution alternatives have been
found. That is the very base of the WiMAX concept: a wireless transmission
infrastructure that allows a fast deployment as well as low maintenance costs.
Based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard, WiMAX allows for an efficient use
of bandwidth in a wide frequency range, and can be used as a last mile
solution for broadband internet access.
The aim of this diploma thesis is to implement all compulsory features of
the WiMAX OFDM physical layer specified in IEEE 802.16-2004 in Matlab
Simulink. Optional space-time coding for more than one transmit antenna is
implemented to allow performance investigations in various MIMO scenarios.
Likewise, a maximum ratio combining diversity scheme is implemented in the
receiver for the same purpose. In order to combat the temporal variations in
quality on a multipath fading channel, an adaptive modulation and coding
technique is used. This technique employs multiple modulation and coding
schemes to instantaneously adapt to the variations in the channel SNR, thus
maximizing the system throughput and improving BER performance.
The thesis gives an overview about the WiMAX standard and studies
the performance of a WiMAX transmitter and receiver, also covering the
performance gains of some optional features, such as the MIMO extension.
The influence of these parts on the system performance is shown and analyzed
in great detail in simulation results.

iii
Contents

1 Introduction 1
1.1 The WiMAX standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Technical overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Relationship with other wireless technologies . . . . . . 8
1.2 Outline of the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2 Transmitter 14
2.1 Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 Encoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.1 Reed-Solomon encoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.2 Convolutional encoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.3 Puncturing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.4 Interleaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3 Modulation mapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4 Pilot symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.5 Training sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.6 Assembler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.7 The guard bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.8 Inverse Fast Fourier Transform algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.9 The cyclic prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3 Channel 30
3.1 Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2 Fading channel models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.1 Description of the fading channel . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.2 Flat fading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.3 Frequency-selective fading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.4 Channel model implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

iv
 3.3 The I-METRA channel model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

4 Receiver 43
4.1 Fast Fourier Transform algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2 Removing the guard bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3 Disassembler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.4 Channel estimator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.5 Demapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.5.1 Hard Demapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.5.2 Soft demapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.6 Decoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.6.1 Deinterleaving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.6.2 Inserting zeros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.6.3 Viterbi decoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.6.4 Reed-Solomon decoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

5 MIMO transmission 53
5.1 MIMO communications theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.1.1 The MIMO channel model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.1.2 Space-Time Coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.1.3 Maximum Ratio Combining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.2 MIMO implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.2.1 Transmitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2.2 Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

6 Adaptive Modulation and Coding 66

6.1 Theory on the AMC technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.1.1 Introduction to adaptive transmission mechanisms . . . 66
6.1.2 Performance of the AMC scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.2 AMC implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.2.1 SNR estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.2.2 The AMC block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.2.3 Coding and decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

7 Simulation results 73
7.1 A single antenna transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.1.1 Modulation schemes and coding rates . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.1.2 Types of channel fading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

v
 7.1.3 Demapping and channel estimation . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7.1.4 AMC and its effects in the results . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.2 Multiple antenna transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.2.1 SISO, SIMO, MISO, and MIMO systems . . . . . . . . 83
7.2.2 Channel model scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

8 Conclusion 86

A OFDM theory 89
A.1 Multicarrier modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
A.2 Orthogonality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
A.3 Cyclic Prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
A.4 The OFDM system model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
A.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

B Derivation of formulas 95
B.1 Description of the correlation matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
B.2 Estimation of the transmitted symbols when using STC . . . . 97
B.2.1 Alamouti with one receive antenna . . . . . . . . . . . 97
B.2.2 Alamouti with two receive antennas . . . . . . . . . . . 99

C Parameters of the simulator 101

C.1 Parameters description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
C.1.1 OFDM symbol description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
C.1.2 Transmission parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
C.1.3 Channel parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
C.1.4 Parameter values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
C.2 WiMAX vs. Wi-Fi simulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

D WiMAX simulator block diagram 107

E Abbreviations and Symbols 110

E.1 List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
E.2 List of symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Bibliography 120

vi
Chapter 1

Introduction

The experienced growth in the use of digital networks has led to the need
for the design of new communication networks with higher capacity. The
telecommunication industry is also changing, with a demand for a greater
range of services, such as video conferences, or applications with multimedia
contents. The increased reliance on computer networking and the Internet
has resulted in a wider demand for connectivity to be provided "any where,
any time", leading to a rise in the requirements for higher capacity and high
reliability broadband wireless telecommunication systems.
Broadband availability brings high performance connectivity to over a
billion users worldwide, thus developing new wireless broadband standards
and technologies that will rapidly span wireless coverage. Wireless digital
communications are an emerging field that has experienced an spectacular
expansion during the last several years. Moreover, the huge uptake rate of
mobile phone technology, WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) and the
exponential growth of Internet have resulted in an increased demand for new
methods of obtaining high capacity wireless networks [1].
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, known as WiMAX, is
a wireless networking standard which aims for addressing interoperability
across IEEE1 802.16 standard-based products. WiMAX defines a WMAN2 ,
a kind of a huge hot-spot that provides interoperable broadband wireless
connectivity to fixed, portable, and nomadic users. It allows communications
which have no direct visibility, coming up as an alternative connection for
cable, DSL3 , and T1/E1 systems, as well as a possible transport network for
Wi-Fi4 hot-spots, thus becoming a solution to develop broadband industry
1
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
2
Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
3
Digital Subscriber Line
4
Wireless-Fidelity, name given to WLAN IEEE 802.11b standard-based products.

1
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 2

platforms. Likewise, products based on WiMAX technology can be combined

with other technologies to offer broadband access in many of the possible
scenarios of utilization, as shown in Figure 1.0 - 1, where examples of the
deployment of WiMAX systems are illustrated.
WiMAX will substitute other broadband technologies competing in the
same segment and will become an excellent solution for the deployment of
the well-known last mile infrastructures in places where it is very difficult
to get with other technologies, such as cable or DSL, and where the costs of
deployment and maintenance of such technologies would not be profitable. In
this way, WiMAX will connect rural areas in developing countries as well as
underserved metropolitan areas. It can even be used to deliver backhaul for
carrier structures, enterprise campus, and Wi-Fi hot-spots. WiMAX offers a
good solution for these challenges because it provides a cost-effective, rapidly
deployable solution [2].
Additionally, WiMAX will represent a serious competitor to 3G (Third
Generation) cellular systems as high speed mobile data applications will be
achieved with the 802.16e specification.

Figure 1.0 - 1: Possible scenarios for the deployment of WiMAX.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 3

1.1 The WiMAX standard

The IEEE 802.16 standard was firstly designed to address communications
with direct visibility in the frequency band from 10 to 66 GHz. Due to the
fact that non-line-of-sight transmissions are difficult when communicating at
high frequencies, the amendment 802.16a was specified for working in a lower
frequency band, between 2 and 11 GHz. The IEEE 802.16d specification is
a variation of the fixed standard (IEEE 802.16a) with the main advantage of
optimizing the power consumption of the mobile devices. The last revision
of this specification is better known as IEEE 802.16-2004 [3].
On the other hand, the IEEE 802.16e standard is an amendment to the
802.16-2004 base specification with the aim of targeting the mobile market
by adding portability.
WiMAX standard-based products are designed to work not only with
IEEE 802.16-2004 but also with the IEEE 802.16e specification. While the
802.16-2004 is primarily intended for stationary transmission, the 802.16e is
oriented to both stationary and mobile deployments.

1.1.1 Technical overview

The WiMAX standard defines the air interface for the IEEE 802.16-2004
specification working in the frequency band 2-11 GHz. This air interface
includes the definition of the medium access control (MAC) and the physical
(PHY) layers.

Medium Access Control (MAC) layer

Some functions are associated with providing service to subscribers. They
include transmitting data in frames and controlling the access to the shared
wireless medium. The medium access control (MAC) layer, which is situated
above the physical layer, groups the mentioned functions.
The original MAC is enhanced to accommodate multiple physical layer
specifications and services, addressing the needs for different environments.
It is generally designed to work with point-to-multipoint topology networks,
with a base station controlling independent sectors simultaneously. Access
and bandwidth allocation algorithms must be able to accommodate hundreds
of terminals per channel, with terminals that may be shared by multiple end
users. Therefore, the MAC protocol defines how and when a base station (BS)
or a subscriber station (SS) may initiate the transmission on the channel.
In the downstream direction there is only one transmitter, and the MAC
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 4

Feature Benefit
TDM/TDMA scheduled • Efficient bandwidth usage.
uplink/downlink frames
Scalable from one to hundreds • Allows cost effective deployments by
of subscribers supporting enough subscribers to deliver
a robust business case.
Connection-oriented • Per connection QoS.
• Faster packet routing and forwarding.
QoS support • Low latency for delay sensitive services
(TDM, Voice, VoIP).
• Optimal transport for VBR6 traffic (video).
• Data priorization.
Automatic retransmission • Improves end-to-end performance by
request (ARQ) hiding RF layer induced errors from
upper layer protocols.
Support for adaptive • Enables highest data rates allowed by
modulation channel conditions, exploiting system
capacity.
Security and encryption • Protects user privacy.
(TripleDES)
Automatic power control • Enables cellular deployments by
minimizing self-interference.

Table 1.1 - 1: 802.16-2004 MAC features.

protocol is quite simple using TDM5 to multiplex the data. However, in the
upstream direction, where multiple SSs compete for accessing to the medium,
the MAC protocol applies a time division multiple access (TDMA) technique,
thus providing an efficient use of the bandwidth.
The services required by the multiple users are varied, including voice
and data, Internet protocol (IP) connectivity, and voice over IP (VoIP). In
order to support this variety of services, the MAC layer must accommodate
both continuous and bursty traffic, adapting the data velocities and delays
to the needs of each service. Additionally, mechanisms in the MAC provide
for differentiated quality of service (QoS) supporting the needs of various
applications.
Issues of transport efficiency are also addressed. Both modulation and
coding schemes are specified in a burst profile that is adjusted adaptively for
each burst to each subscriber station, making the use of bandwidth efficient,
providing maximum data rates, and improving the capacity of the system.
The request-grant mechanism is designed to be scalable, efficient, and self-
5
Time Division Multiplexing
6
Variable Bit Rate
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 5

correcting, allowing the system a scalability from one to hundreds of users.

Another feature that improves the transmission performance is the automatic
repeat request (ARQ) as well as the support for mesh topology rather than
only point-to-multipoint network architectures. The possibility of working
with mesh topologies allows direct communication between SSs, enhancing
this way the scalability of the system. The standard also supports automatic
power control, and security and encryption mechanisms. Further information
about the MAC features can be found in [4] and [5].

Physical (PHY) layer

The IEEE 802.16-2004 standard defines three different PHYs that can be
used in conjunction with the MAC layer to provide a reliable end-to-end
link. These PHY specifications are:
• A single carrier (SC) modulated air interface.
• A 256-point FFT OFDM7 multiplexing scheme.
• A 2048-point FFT OFDMA8 scheme.
While the SC air interface is used for line-of-sight (LoS) transmissions,
the two OFDM-based systems are more suitable for non line-of-sight (NLoS)
operations due to the simplicity of the equalization process for multicarrier
signals. The fixed WiMAX standard defines profiles using the 256-point
FFT OFDM PHY layer specification. Furthermore, fixed WiMAX systems
provide up to 5 km of service area allowing transmissions with a maximum
data rate up to 70 Mbps in a 20 MHz channel bandwith, and offer the users
a broadband connectivity without needing a direct line-of-sight to the base
station.
The main features of the mentioned fixed WiMAX are detailed next:
• Use of an OFDM modulation scheme, which allows the transmission
of multiple signals using different subcarriers simultaneously. Because
the OFDM waveform is composed of multiple narrowband orthogonal
carriers, selective fading is localized to a subset of carriers that are
relatively easy to equalize.
• Design of an adaptive modulation and coding mechanism that depends
on channel and interference conditions. It adjusts the modulation
method almost instantaneously for optimum data transfer, thus making
a most efficient use of the bandwidth.
7
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
8
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 6

• Support of both time and frequency division duplexing formats, FDD

and TDD, allowing the system to be adapted to the regulations in
different countries.

• Robust FEC9 techniques, used to detect and correct errors in order to

improve throughput. The FEC scheme is implemented with a Reed-
Solomon encoder concatenated with a convolutional one, and followed
by an interleaver. Optional support of block turbo coding (BTC) and
convolutional turbo coding (CTC) can be implemented.

• Use of flexible channel bandwidths, comprised from 1.25 to 20 MHz,

thus providing the necessary flexibility to operate in many different
frequency bands with varying channel requirements around the world.
This flexibility facilitates transmissions over longer ranges and from
different types of subscriber platforms. In addition, it is also crucial
for cell planning, especially in the licensed spectrum.

• Optional support of both transmit and receive diversity to enhance

performance in fading environments through spatial diversity, allowing
the system to increase capacity. The transmitter implements space-
time coding (STC) to provide transmit source independence, reducing
the fade margin requirement, and combating interference. The receiver,
however, uses maximum ratio combining (MRC) techniques to improve
the availability of the system.

• Design of a dynamic frequency selection (DFS) mechanism to minimize

inteferences.

• Optional support of smart antennas, whose beams can steer their focus
to a particular direction or directions always pointing at the receiver,
and consequently, avoiding interference between adjacent channels, and
increasing the spectral density and the SNR. There are two basic types
of smart antennas, those with multiple beam (directional antennas),
and those known as adaptive antenna systems (AAS). The first ones
can use either a fixed number of beams choosing the most suitable
for the transmission or an steering beam to the desired antenna. The
second type works with multi-element antennas with a varying beam
pattern. These smart antennas are becoming a good alternative for
BWA10 deployments.
9
Forward Error Correction
10
Broadband Wireless Access
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 7

Feature11 Benefit
256-point FFT OFDM • Simple equalization of multipath channels in
waveform outdoor LoS and NLoS environments.
Adaptive modulation and variable • Ensures a robust RF link while maximizing
error correction encoding the number of bits per second for each
per radio frequency (RF) burst subscriber unit.
TDD and FDD duplexing • Addresses varying worldwide regulations when
support one or both may be allowed.
Flexible channel sizes • Provides the necessary flexibility to operate
(from 1.25 to 20 MHz) in many different frequency bands with
varying requirements around the world.
DFS support • Minimizes interference between adjacent
channels.
Designed to support AAS • Smart antennas are fast becoming more
affordable, and as these costs come down,
their ability to suppress interference and
increase system gain is more important
to BWA deployments.
TDM and FDM support • Allows interoperability between cellular
systems (TDM) and wireless systems (FDM).
Designed to support • Implemented in DL to increase diversity
multiple-input multiple-output and capacity.
(MIMO) schemes • STC algorithms at the transmitter, MRC
at the receiver.

Table 1.1 - 2: 802.16-2004 PHY features.

• Implementation of channel quality measurements which help in the

selection and assignment of the adaptive burst profiles.

• Support of both time and frequency division multiplexing formats (TDM

and FDM), to allow interoperability between cellular systems working
with TDM, and wireless systems that use FDM.

The mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e)12 uses the 2048-point FFT OFDMA
PHY specification. It provides a service area coverage from 1.6 to 5 km,
allowing transmission rates of 5 Mbps in a 5 MHz channel bandwidth, and
with a user maximum speed below 100 km/h. It presents the same features
as those of the fixed WiMAX specification that have been already mentioned.
However, other features such as handoffs and power-saving mechanisms are
added to offer a reliable communication. Battery life and handoff are two
critical issues for mobile applications. On one hand, maximizing battery life
11
All these features are in great detail explained in [5].
12
A complete description of the mobile WiMAX can be found in [6].
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 8

implies minimizing the mobile station (MS) power usage. On the other hand,
handoff and handovers are necessary to enable the MS to switch from one
BS to another at vehicular speeds without interrupting the connection.
The main features of the initial IEEE 802.16 standard, and those of the
so-called fixed and mobile WiMAX, 802.16-2004 and 802.16e respectively, are
summarized in the following chart:

802.16 802.16-2004 802.16e

Spectrum 10-66 GHz < 11 GHz < 6 GHz
Maximum 32-134 Mbps up to 70 Mbps up to 15 Mbps
data rate (28 MHz channel) (20 MHz channel) (5 MHz channel)
Alignment LoS LoS and NLoS LoS and NLoS
Coverage 2-5 km approx. 5-10 km approx. 2-5 km approx.
range (maximum of 50 km)
Channel 20, 25 and Flexible, from Equal to 802.16-2004
bandwidth 28 MHz 1.25 up to 20 MHz
Modulation 2-PAM, 4-QAM, OFDM with 256 OFDMA with 2048
16-QAM, and subcarriers 2-PAM, subcarriers 2-PAM,
64-QAM 4-QAM, 16-QAM, 4-QAM, 16-QAM,
and 64-QAM and 64-QAM
Mobility Fixed Fixed and Pedestrian Vehicular (20-100 km/h)

Table 1.1 - 3: IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.16-2004, and IEEE 802.16e standards.

1.1.2 Relationship with other wireless technologies

Range
Cellular evolution

2G 2.5G 3G 3.5G 3.75G 4G

802.16e
i on
o lut 802.16d
v
rk se
wo 802.11g
s net
les 802.16a
ire
W
802.11b
Proprietary
Time

Figure 1.1 - 1: Convergence in wireless communications.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 9

Wireless access to data networks is expected to be an area of rapid growth

for mobile communication systems. The huge uptake rate of mobile phone
technologies, WLANs and the exponential growth that is experiencing the
use of the Internet have resulted in an increased demand for new methods to
obtain high capacity wireless networks. WiMAX may be seen as the fourth
generation (4G) of mobile systems as the convergence of cellular telephony,
computing, Internet access, and potentially many multimedia applications
become a real fact. The mentioned convergence between wireless and cellular
networks is illustrated in Figure 1.1 - 1.
In any case, both WLAN and cellular mobile applications are being widely
expanded to offer the demanded wireless access. However, they experience
several difficulties for reaching a complete mobile broadband access, bounded
by factors such as bandwidth, coverage area, and infrastructure costs. On one
hand, Wi-Fi provides a high data rate, but only on a short range of distances
and with a slow movement of the user. On the other hand, UMTS13 offers
larger ranges and vehicular mobility, but instead, it provides lower data rates,
and requires high investments for its deployment. WiMAX tries to balance
this situation . As shown in Figure 1.1 - 2, it fills the gap between Wi-Fi and
UMTS, thus providing vehicular mobility (included in IEEE 802.16e), and
high service areas and data rates.

Rate

Wi-Fi

WiMAX

UMTS

Mobility

Figure 1.1 - 2: WiMAX fills the gap between Wi-Fi and UMTS.

Therefore, while WiMAX will complement Wi-Fi and UMTS in some of

the possible scenarios where these systems are not sufficiently developed, i.e.
they face several problems in the deployment and they do not offer enough
capacity to serve all possible users, WiMAX will compete with Wi-Fi and
13
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 10

UMTS also in other possible scenarios, where, in general, the costs in the
deployment, maintenance, or just the supply of the service would not be
profitable.
Table 1.1 - 4 gives an overview on the comparison between the mentioned
systems, WiMAX and its two closest competitors, Wi-Fi and UMTS. A
deeper analysis of these three systems will be developed next.

Wi-Fi WiMAX UMTS

HSDPA
Standard IEEE 802.11 IEEE 802.16 IMT200014
Channel Fixed Variable Variable Fixed
width 20 MHz ≤ 20 MHz ≤ 28 MHz 5 MHz
Spectrum 2.4/5.2 GHz 2-11 GHz 10-66 GHz ∼2 GHz
Data rate 2/54 Mbps 70 Mbps 240 Mbps 1/14 Mbps
Range 100 m 1-7 km 12-15 km 50 km
Multiplexing TDM FDM/TDM FDM/TDM FDM
Transmission SS15 /OFDM OFDM/OFDMA SC WCDMA
Mobility Pedestrian Vehicular (802.16e) No Vehicular
Advantages Throughput Throughput Mobility
and costs and range and range
Disadvantages Short range Interference Low rates
issues? and expensive

Table 1.1 - 4: Comparative table between Wi-Fi, WiMAX and UMTS.

WiMAX vs. Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or WLAN is the name with which the IEEE 802.11 standard-based
products are known. It includes the 802.11a specification, capable to offer
data rates of 54 Mbps working in the frequency band of 5.2 GHz; and the
802.11b specification, in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, which provides users
with data rates of 11 Mbps. This technology has generally a coverage area
of 100 meters and fixed channel bandwidths of 20 MHz [7].
WiMAX appeared to fulfil the need for delivering wireless access to MANs.
It was designed to offer BWA services to metropolitan areas providing users
with larger coverage ranges and higher data rates. WiMAX systems are able
to support users in ranges up to 50 km with a direct visibility to the base
station and ranges from 1 to 7 km where no visibility is available. Rates from
70 to 240 Mbps are offered and can be achieved with this technology.
15
International Mobile Communications
15
Spread Spectrum
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 11

However, WiMAX does not create a conflict with the mentioned Wi-Fi,
as they are complementary technologies. WiMAX provides a low cost way
to backhaul Wi-Fi hot-spots and WLAN points in businesses and homes,
offering a wireless last mile extension for cable and DSL infrastructures.

WiMAX vs. UMTS

UMTS is identified with the so-called third generation of cellular networks
standardized by the 3GPP16 . The frequency bands that are assigned to this
technology are the licensed frequencies from 1885 to 2025 MHz, and from
2110 to 2200 MHz. It uses wideband code division mutiple access (WCDMA)
as the carrier modulation scheme, and it has been specified as an integrated
solution for mobile voice and data with wide coverage area, offering data
rates that may decrease while the velocity of the user increases. This system
provides for theoretical bit rates of up to 384 kbps in high mobility situations,
which rise as high as 2 Mbps in stationary user environments, employing a
5 MHz channel width. Moreover, HSDPA17 technology further increases the
throughput speeds, providing theoretical data rates as high as 14 Mbps [8].
WiMAX is becoming a serious threat for 3G cellular networks because
of its broadband and distance capabilities, as well as its ability to effectively
support voice with full QoS. WiMAX is also able to offer higher data rates
than UMTS, but it does not allow the same grade of mobility. However,
it is expected to be set up as an alternative to cellular networks, as the
investments the operators need to carry out for its deployment are not so
high.

1.2 Outline of the thesis

This thesis examines the implementation of a WiMAX simulator built with
Matlab Simulink. This simulator is targeted to the 256-point FFT OFDM
PHY layer. The thesis is organized in eight chapters, in which a detailed
overview of every element of the system is given taking into account both
the standard specifications and the corresponding theoretical aspects, which
are necessary to understand all the different methods and processes that have
been used.
An overview of the WiMAX system has already been exposed in the
present chapter, where the main features of the standard are summarized.
In order to understand the objectives and the applications of this system, a
16
3rd Generation Partnership Project
17
High Speed Downlink Packet Access
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 12

comparison between WiMAX and other wireless systems is also included in

the chapter.
The remaining seven chapters discuss the implementation of the WiMAX
simulator.
As any other communication system, WiMAX has three basic elements,
a transmitter, a receiver, and a channel over which the information is sent.
The main components of a WiMAX communication system are shown in
Figure 1.2 - 1.

Transmitter Channel Receiver

feedback

Figure 1.2 - 1: Basic communication system.

The transmitter, presented in Chapter 2, is the one who generates the

signal to be sent over the channel. Before sending it, the signal has to
be adapted to the channel conditions using a specific adaptive modulation
and coding scheme. As data is transmitted using the OFDM transmission
technique, it also needs to be conformed into an OFDM symbol by performing
the corresponding operations, which include a frequency-time transformation
and the addition of a guard period. Then, the signal is sent over the channel,
discussed in the next chapter.
Chapter 3 examines the communication channel. For the WiMAX system,
it is a wireless channel. The performance of any wireless communication
system is highly dependent on the propagation channel, and so, a detailed
knowledge of radio propagation effects, such as path loss, frequency-selective
fading, Doppler spread, and multipath delay spread have to be considered
for the optimization of the communication link. This way, this chapter gives
a theoretical explanation about time-variant channels, to afterwards outline
two fading channel models, flat and frequency-selective fading channels. The
channel implementation of our simulator is also discussed in this chapter,
which offers in its end an overview of the well-known I-METRA18 used to
model fading channels.
The receiver is examined in Chapter 4. It observes the signal after the
channel and performs the necessary operations to obtain the transmitted
information. These operations include a channel estimation as well as an
equalization process to solve the degrading effects of the signal caused by
18
Intelligent Multi-Element Transmit and Receive Antennas
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 13

multipath propagation. Furthermore, a method that accomplishes the proper

decoding of soft or hard demodulator outputs to reproduce, as accurately as
possible, the data that was transmitted is also implemented.
Chapter 5 introduces MIMO systems. The use of multiple antennas at
the transmitter and/or at the receiver in a communication link opens a new
dimension in reliable wireless communications, improving the performance
of the system substantially. The core idea in the MIMO transmitter is STC
in which signal processing in time is completed with signal processing in the
spatial dimension by using multiple spatially distributed antennas at both
link ends. The MRC diversity scheme, by which multiple replicas of the same
information signal received over different diversity branches are combined so
as to maximize the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the combiner
output, is used in the MIMO receiver.
Additionally, a feedback mechanism that allows to transfer information
about the channel state back to the transmitter is described. Using this
information, an adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) mechanism can be
implemented. Chapter 6 is devoted to the analysis of the mentioned AMC
process. Based on the current channel characteristics, it adaptively changes
the coding and the carrier modulation scheme allowing the data rate to be
maximized.
Chapter 7 analyzes the obtained results. Firstly, simulation results using
an AWGN19 channel are discussed. Next, simulations with MIMO channels
show not only the improvement in BER20 performance but also the increase in
data rate that can be achieved without any bandwidth expansion when using
these systems. Lastly, several results show the enhancement in throughput
obtained with the performance of the AMC mechanism.
Finally, the concluding remarks are summed up in Chapter 8.
Additionally, this work also includes five appendices that complete the
thesis already outlined. Appendix A is intended to give an overview of OFDM
systems. Appendix B presents a detailed analysis on the derivation of some
formulas explained in the thesis. In Appendix C, a set of values for the
parameters of the simulator is listed. A comparison between parameters used
in a previously implemented WLAN and those of the newly built WiMAX
simulator is also given in this appendix. Appendix D gives a general view of
the WiMAX simulator through the whole Simulink block diagram. Finally,
Appendix E includes two lists, the first contains the acronyms used in the
thesis, written in their full length, and the second includes the notations that
have been employed through this work.

19
Additive White Gaussian Noise
20
Bit Error Rate
Chapter 2

Transmitter

This chapter describes the different steps the transmitter performs before
transmitting the data. The functional blocks that compose the transmitter
of the WiMAX simulator are depicted in Figure 2.0 - 1.

Pilot

Input Transmitted
bits Add signal
Encoder Mapper Assembler IFFT256 Add CP
Zeros

Training

Figure 2.0 - 1: Transmitter of the WiMAX system.

First
Reedof all, the data from the source is randomized and afterwards, coded
Convolutional
1
Solomon
and mapped into QAM Puncture Interleaver
Encoder symbols. As previously explained in Chapter 1,
Encoder
the simulator implemented in the thesis works for the WirelessMAN-OFDM
physical (PHY) layer of WiMAX. This PHY layer uses orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) with 256 subcarriers.
Each OFDM2 symbol is composed of 192 data subcarriers, 1 zero DC
subcarrier, 8 pilot subcarriers, and 55 guard carriers. Therefore, a process
of assembling the zero DC subcarrier, data, and pilots is needed to built
the symbols. Furthermore, preambles consisting of training sequences are
appended at the beginning of each burst. These training sequences are used
for performing an estimation of the channel coefficients at the receiver.
1
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
2
A detailed analysis of the OFDM theory is given in Appendix A.

14
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 15

After the assembling process, a zero padding is performed. The signal is

converted to the time domain by means of the inverse fast Fourier transform
(IFFT) algorithm, and finally, a cyclic prefix (CP) with the aim of preventing
inter-symbol interference is added.

2.1 Source
As described in the standard [4], the information bits must be randomized
before the transmission. The randomization process is used to minimize
the possibility of transmissions of non-modulated subcarriers. The process
of randomization is performed on each burst of data on the downlink and
uplink, and on each allocation of a data block (subchannels on the frequency
domain and OFDM symbols on the time domain).
In our case, instead of performing a randomization process, a binary
source that produces random sequences of bits is used. The number of bits
that are generated is specified to be frame-based and is calculated from the
packet size required in each situation. The packet size depends on the number
of transmitted OFDM symbols and the overall coding rate of the system, as
well as the modulation alphabet.
Equation 2.1 - 1 calculates the number of transmitted OFDM symbols in
one frame. It depends on the total number of transmitted symbols, NTsym ,
which also includes the symbols used for the preamble, specified by Ntrain :

NOFDM = NTsym − Ntrain . (2.1 - 1)

Furthermore, the total number of transmitted symbols is defined as
Tframe
NTsym = . (2.1 - 2)
Tsym

In the formula, Tsym is the OFDM symbol time, and Tframe denotes the
frame duration. The expression that defines Tsym as well as the possible
values specified for the frame duration can be found in Section C.1.1.
Once the number of OFDM symbols is known, the number of bits to be
sent by the source is calculated:

Spacket = NOFDM RNdata Ma . (2.1 - 3)

Here, R represents the overall coding rate, Ndata is the number of used data
subcarriers, and Ma defines the modulation alphabet, which is specified by
the number of transmitted bits per symbol.
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 16

2.2 Encoder
As shown in Figure 2.2 - 1, the encoding process consists of a concatenation of
an outer Reed-Solomon (RS) code and an inner convolutional code (CC) as a
FEC scheme. That means that first data passes in block format through the
RS encoder, and then, it goes across the convolutional encoder. It is a flexible
coding process due to the puncturing of the signal, and allows different coding
rates. The last part of the encoder is a process of interleaving to avoid long
error bursts.

Reed-Solomon Convolutional
Puncture Interleaver
Encoder Encoder

Figure 2.2 - 1: The coding process in WiMAX.

A variable-rate coding scheme that depends on the channel conditions

is designed to offer optimal error protection levels to the users. The FEC
options are paired with several modulation schemes to form burst profiles of
varying robustness and efficiency. Table 2.2 - 1 gives the block sizes and code
rates used for the different modulations.
AMC Modulation RS code CC Overall
code rate code rate
1 2-PAM3 (12,12,0) 1/2 1/2
2 4-QAM (32,24,4) 2/3 1/2
3 4-QAM (40,36,2) 5/6 3/4
4 16-QAM (64,48,4) 2/3 1/2
5 16-QAM (80,72,4) 5/6 3/4
6 64-QAM (108,96,6) 3/4 2/3
7 64-QAM (120,108,6) 5/6 3/4

Table 2.2 - 1: WiMAX modulation and coding schemes.

The users report the current channel condition to the base station (BS)
and, based on this report, a specific coding rate is selected for the downlink
data transmissions. Thus, users who experience a "bad" channel condition,
i.e. low SNR, at a given time, will be provided with better error correction
3
Pulse Amplitude Modulation
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 17

than those users experiencing "good" channel conditions at the same time.
This process is called adaptive modulation and coding (AMC)4 .
In the next sections, each one of the different encoder blocks will be
explained in detail. It will be given a thorough description of how they work
and are implemented in the simulator.

2.2.1 Reed-Solomon encoder

The properties of Reed-Solomon codes make them suitable to applications
where errors occur in bursts. Reed-Solomon error correction is a coding
scheme which works by first constructing a polynomial from the data symbols
to be transmitted, and then sending an oversampled version of the polynomial
instead of the original symbols themselves.
A Reed-Solomon code is specified as RS(n, k, t) with l-bit symbols. This
means that the encoder takes k data symbols of l bits each and adds 2t parity
symbols to construct an n-symbol codeword. Thus, n, k and t can be defined
as:

• n: number of bytes after encoding,

• k: number of data bytes before encoding,

• t: number of data bytes that can be corrected.

The error correction ability of any RS code is determined by (n − k), the

measure of redundancy in the block. If the location of the erroneous symbols
is not known in advance, then a Reed-Solomon code can correct up to t
symbols, where t can be expressed as t = (n − k)/2.
As specified in the standard, the Reed-Solomon encoding shall be derived
from a systematic RS(n = 255, k = 239, t = 8) code using a Galois field
specified as GF(28 ). The primitive and generator polynomials used for the
systematic code are expressed as follows:

Primitive Polynomial:

p(x) = x8 + x4 + x3 + x2 + 1 (2.2 - 1)

Generator Polynomial:

g(x) = (x + λ0 )(x + λ1 )(x + λ2 )...(x + λ2t−1 ) (2.2 - 2)

4
Further information of the AMC mechanism can be found in Chapter 6.
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 18

The primitive polynomial is the one used to construct the symbol field
and it can also be named as field generator polynomial. The code generator
polynomial is used to calculate parity symbols and has the form specified
as before, where λ is the primitive element of the Galois field over which
the input message is defined. See [9] and [10] for more information about
Reed-Solomon codes.
To make the RS code flexible, i.e. to allow for variable block sizes and
variable correction capabilities, it is shortened and punctured. When a block
is shortened to k bytes, 239 − k zero bytes are added as a prefix, and, after
the encoding process, the 239 − k encoded zero bytes are discarded. Once
the process of shortening has been done, the number of symbols going in and
out of the RS encoder change, and also the number of symbols that can be
corrected, t. With the puncturing, only the first 2t of the total 16 parity
bytes5 shall be employed. Figure 2.2 - 2 shows the RS encoding, shortening,
and puncturing process.

k data bytes

239-k zeros k data bytes

239-k zeros k data bytes 16 parity

k+2t

Figure 2.2 - 2: Process of shortening and puncturing of the RS code.

The input of the RS encoder block defined by Simulink is specified to

be a vector whose length is an integer multiple of lk, being l the length of
the binary sequences corresponding to elements of the Galois field GF(2l ),
and the output, a vector whose length is the same integer multiple of ln.
Therefore, the first step to implement is to divide the data vector in a number
of blocks whose length fits the requirement quoted above. At the same time,
it has to be taken into account that the number of data bytes before encoding,
5
The parity bytes are calculated from the systematic RS(255, 239, 8) code, as 2t = n−k.
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 19

k, the number of overall bytes after encoding, n, and the number of data
bytes that can be corrected, t, are the ones specified in Table 2.2 - 1, and
they change for every modulation scheme. Thus, the number of blocks used
in the Reed-Solomon encoder is calculated as
Spacket
NRS = . (2.2 - 3)
8k
A block diagram of the Reed-Solomon encoder implemented in Matlab
Simulink is depicted in Figure 2.2 - 3.

Reshape Zero Reshape RS Reshape Select Reshape

1 padding 2 encoder 3 rows 4

Figure 2.2 - 3: Block diagram of the Reed-Solomon encoder of WiMAX.

"Reshape 1" arranges the input data of the RS encoder in a matrix form,
where the corresponding number of rows is calculated from the length of
the blocks before encoding, k, and the number of calculated Reed-Solomon
blocks, as specified in Equation 2.2 - 3, determines the number of columns.
Zero padding along columns at the beginning is performed to achieve a length
of 239 bytes for each block. "Reshape 2" shapes out the matrix structure into
a vector6 . Once data has passed through the encoder, the block "Reshape 3"
distributes the output vector of the encoder in a matrix with size 255 × NRS .
The "Select rows"-block deals with selecting the correct amount of bytes
after the encoding process. Thus, the zero prefix is discarded, and data
is punctured by taking only the first 2t bytes of the total parity bytes, as
previously explained. To end, "Reshape 4" rearranges the matrix data in a
column vector, ready for the convolutional coding.

2.2.2 Convolutional encoder

After the RS encoding process, the data bits are further encoded by a binary
convolutional encoder, which has a native rate of 1/2 and a constraint length
of 7. The generator polynomials used to derive its two output code bits,
denoted X and Y, are specified in the following expressions:

G1 = 171OCT for X, (2.2 - 4)

G2 = 133OCT for Y. (2.2 - 5)

6
The RS encoder block of Simulink only works with vector structures.
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 20

A convolutional encoder accepts messages of length k0 bits and generates

codewords of n0 bits. Generally, it is made up of a shift register of L segments,
where L denotes the constraint length.
The binary convolutional encoder that implements the described code is
shown in Figure 2.2 - 4. A connection line from the shift register feeding into
the adder means a "one" in the octal representation of the polynomials, and
no connection is represented by a "zero".

1 1 1 1 0 0 1
X = 171OCT

T T T T T T

Y = 133OCT
1 0 1 1 0 1 1

Figure 2.2 - 4: Convolutional encoder of binary rate 1/2.

2.2.3 Puncturing process

Puncturing is the process of systematically deleting bits from the output
stream of a low-rate encoder in order to reduce the amount of data to be
transmitted, thus forming a high-rate code. The bits are deleted according
to a perforation matrix, where a "zero" means a discarded bit.
The process of puncturing is used to create the variable coding rates
needed to provide various error protection levels to the users of the system.
The different rates that can be used are rate 1/2, rate 2/3, rate 3/4, and rate
5/6. The puncturing vectors for these rates are given in Table 2.2 - 2.

Rate Puncture vector

1/2 [1]
2/3 [1 1 1 0]
3/4 [1 1 0 1 1 0]
5/6 [1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0]

Table 2.2 - 2: Puncture vectors for different convolutional coding rates.

The convolutional coding and puncturing is directly supported by Simulink

in a single block. This block was used for the implementation.
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 21

2.2.4 Interleaver
Data interleaving is generally used to scatter error bursts and thus, reduce
the error concentration to be corrected with the purpose of increasing the
efficiency of FEC by spreading burst errors introduced by the transmission
channel over a longer time. Interleaving is normally implemented by using
a two-dimensional array buffer, such that the data enters the buffer in rows,
which specify the number of interleaving levels, and then, it is read out in
columns. The result is that a burst of errors in the channel after interleaving
becomes in few scarcely spaced single symbol errors, which are more easily
correctable.
WiMAX uses an interleaver that combines data using 12 interleaving
levels. The effect of this process can be understood as a spreading of the bits
of the different symbols, which are combined to get new symbols, with the
same size but with rearranged bits.
The interleaver of the simulator has been implemented in two steps. First,
data passes through a matrix interleaver which performs block interleaving
by filling a matrix with the input symbols row by row, and then sending this
matrix content column by column. The parameters used for this block are
the number of rows and columns that compose the matrix:
Ntcb
Nrows = 12, Ncolumns = .
Nrows
The second step consists of a block interleaver. It rearranges the elements
of its input according to an index vector. This vector is defined as
tcb −1   
NX     
i iNrows
I= s + mod i + Ntcb − ,s + 1 , (2.2 - 6)
i=0
s Ntcb

where:
• Ntcb is the total number of coded bits,
Ntcb = Ncpc Ntx-data

• Ncpc is the number of coded bits per subcarrier, being the same as
specified with the modulation alphabet, Ma ,
• Ntx-data is the total number of transmitted data symbols, and
Ntx-data = Ndata NOFDM
l m
Ncpc
• s= 2
.
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 22

2.3 Modulation mapper

Once the signal has been coded, it enters the modulation block. All wireless
communication systems use a modulation scheme to map coded bits to a
form that can be effectively transmitted over the communication channel.
Thus, the bits are mapped to a subcarrier amplitude and phase, which is
represented by a complex in-phase and quadrature-phase (IQ) vector. The
IQ plot for a modulation scheme shows the transmitted vector for all data
word combinations. Gray coding is a method for this allocation so that
adjacent points in the constellation only differ by a single bit. This coding
helps to minimize the overall bit error rate as it reduces the chance of multiple
bit errors ocurring from a single symbol error.
2-PAM, 4-QAM, 16-QAM, and 64-QAM modulations are supported by
the system. The support of the last one, the 64-QAM modulation, is optional
for license-exempt bands. The constellation maps for 2-PAM, 4-QAM, and
16-QAM modulations are shown in Figure 2.3 - 1.

1101 1001 0001 0101

1 0 3j -
-

1100 1000 0000 0100

j-

-3 -1 1 3
-

1110 1010 0010 0110

10 00 -j -
j-

-1 1.
-

1111 1011 0011 0111

-3j -
11 01
-j -

Figure 2.3 - 1: 2-PAM, 4-QAM and 16-QAM constellation maps.

111011 110011 100011 101011 001011 000011 010011 011011
7-
To achieve equal average symbol power, the constellations described above
are normalized by multiplying all of its points by an appropriate factor Cm .
111010 110010 100010 101010 001010 000010 010010 011010
Values for this factor Cm are given in Table
5- 2.3 - 1.
The modulation mapping is built in the simulator by a Simulink block
implemented as a 110000
111000
Matlab 100000
m-file. 101000
The symbol alphabet,
001000 000000
A010000
s , represents
011000
the
-
coordinate points in the constellation map and is defined in Table 2.3 - 2.
3

111001 110001 100001 101001 001001 000001 010001 011001

1-

-7 -5 -3 -1 1 3 5 7
-

111101 110101 100101 101101-1- 001101 000101 010101 011101

111100 110100 100100 101100-3- 001100 000100 010100 011100

CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 23

Modulation scheme Normalization constant for

unit average power
2-PAM Cm = 1√
4-QAM Cm = 1/√ 2
16-QAM Cm = 1/√10
64-QAM Cm = 1/ 42

Table 2.3 - 1: Normalization factors.

Modulation Symbol
scheme alphabet
2-PAM As = (1, −1)
4-QAM As = (1 + j, 1 − j, −1 + j, −1 − j)
16-QAM A = (j, 3j, −j, −3j)
As = (A + 1, A + 3, A − 1, A − 3)
64-QAM A = (j, 3j, 5j, 7j − j, −3j, −5j, −7j)
As = (A + 1, A + 3, A + 5, A + 7, A − 1, A − 3, A − 5, A − 7)

Table 2.3 - 2: Modulation alphabet for the constellation map.

Furthermore, an adaptive modulation and coding mechanism is supported

in the downlink with the purpose of allowing the number of transmitted
bits per symbol to be varied depending on the channel conditions. A more
detailed explanation of adaptive modulation as well as a description of how
it is implemented in the simulator is given in Chapter 6.

2.4 Pilot symbols

Pilot symbols can be used to perform a frequency offset compensation at
the receiver. Additionally, as recent results showed [11], they can be used
for channel estimation in fast time-varying channels. Pilot symbols allocate
specific subcarriers in all OFDM data symbols. These pilots are obtained
by a pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) generator that is based on the
polynomial x11 + x9 + 1. They are, moreover, 2-PAM modulated. This kind
of mapping is given by the operations 1 − 2wk and 1 − 2wk , where wk is
the sequence produced by the PRBS generator, and wk denotes the binary
inversion. The indices represent the subcarrier numbers where the pilots are
going to be inserted:

p-88 = p-38 = p63 = p88 = 1 − 2wk ,

p-63 = p-13 = p13 = p38 = 1 − 2wk .

CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 24

The initialization sequences for the PRBS generator vary depending on

the direction of transmission, i.e. the downlink or the uplink. A sequence of
all "ones" is used in the downlink while a sequence of alternated "ones" and
"zeros", being the first bit equal to "one", is used in the uplink.

2.5 Training sequences

In WiMAX systems, preambles, both in DL7 and in UL8 , are composed using
training sequences. Although three types of training sequences are specified,
they are derived from the same sequence in the frequency domain. This
sequence, that has a length of 201 subcarriers, is called PALL . A deeper
definition of it can be found in [4].
For DL transmissions, the first preamble as well as the initial ranging
preamble consists of two consecutive OFDM symbols. The first symbol is a
short training sequence, PSHORT , used for synchronization. It is a sequence
which uses only the subcarriers of PALL whose indices are a multiple of 4,
filling the other subcarriers with "zeros". Thus, in the time domain it is
composed of four repetitions of a 64-sample fragment. The frequency domain
sequence for this first DL preamble is defined in Equation 2.5 - 1.
The second OFDM symbol uses a long training sequence, necessary in the
receiver for channel estimation. As it occurs with the first OFDM symbol of
the preamble, the long training sequence is constructed also using a subset of
the subcarriers of PALL . In this case, the long training sequence utilizes only
even subcarriers. Therefore, it is called PEVEN and its time domain waveform
consists of two repetitions of a 128-sample fragment. Equation 2.5 - 2 defines
the frequency domain sequence for this long training.

 √ √
2 2conj(PALL (k)) k mod 4 = 0
PSHORT (k) = (2.5 - 1)
0 k mod 4 6= 0
 √
2conj(PALL (k)) k mod 2 = 0
PEVEN (k) = (2.5 - 2)
0 k mod 2 6= 0
√
In both, Equation 2.5 - 1 and Equation 2.5 - 2, a factor of 2 representing
√
a boost of 3 dB appears. Furthermore, there is an additional factor of 2 in
PSHORT which has the aim of equating the root-mean-square (RMS) power
with the power of the data symbols.
7
DownLink
8
UpLink
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 25

Another training sequence shall be used when transmitting space-time

coded (STC) downlink bursts. Because the STC scheme achieves diversity
by transmitting with two antennas, a preamble has to be transmitted from
both transmit antennas simultaneously. Thus, the first antenna transmits a
preamble using PEVEN and the preamble transmitted from the second antenna
is set according to the sequence PODD . Again, like PEVEN , it is derived from
the sequence PALL , but using, in this case, a subset of odd subcarriers.

0 k mod 2 = 0
PODD (k) = √ (2.5 - 3)
2conj(PALL (k)) k mod 2 6= 0
The time domain structure of the described preamble, referred to as the
long preamble, is shown in the next figure.

CP 64 64 64 64 CP 128 128

Tg Tb Tg Tb

Figure 2.5 - 1: Long preamble structure, used for DL transmissions.

CP 128 128
Furthermore, the long preamble is followed by the FCH9 , which contains
decoded information for theTgsubscriber station,Tb
i.e. information about the
modulation type and the FEC code length for each burst profile as well as the
DL and UL maps. In the WiMAX simulator the FCH is filled with dummy
data, i.e. it is assumed that the receiver knows all FCH information perfectly.
User data follows the FCH and contains several OFDM symbols of payload
data.

2.6 Assembler
WiMAX specifications for the 256-point FFT OFDM PHY layer define three
types of subcarriers; data, pilot and null, as shown in Figure 2.6 - 1. 200
of the total 256 subcarriers are used for data and pilot subcarriers, eight of
which are pilots permanently spaced throughout the OFDM spectrum. The
remaining 192 active carriers take up the data subcarriers. The rest of the
potential carriers are nulled and set aside for guard bands and removal of the
center frequency subcarrier.
9
Frame Control Header
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 26

Data subcarriers DC subcarrier Pilot subcarriers

Guard band Channel Guard band

Figure 2.6 - 1: OFDM frequency description.

In order to construct an OFDM symbol, a process to rearrange these

carriers is needed. With this purpose, the assembler block is inserted in the
simulator. It performs this operation in two steps by first inserting the pilot
tones and the zero DC subcarrier between data with a process of vertical
concatenation, and then appending the training symbols at the beginning of
each burst in an horizontal way, as shown in Figure 2.6 - 2. It is shown that
while the first step performs a concatenation in the frequency domain, the
second step does it in the time domain.

Pilots

Zero DC
f

Trainings OFDM data symbols

Figure 2.6 - 2: OFDM burst structure obtained after assembling.

The process of assembling the total number of 201 subcarriers is explained

next. Frequency indices are defined in the standard from index -127 to index
128. However, Matlab allows only positive indices, and so, a shift on these
index values is needed in the simulator. Therefore, pilot subcarriers are
inserted in frequency offset indices of 13, 38, 63, 88, 114, 139, 164, and 189.
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 27

The same action occurs with the zero DC, situated in the centered subcarrier,
which is, in this case, the one with index 101.
After this first concatenation, the training symbols are appended at the
beginning of each burst.

2.7 The guard bands

The OFDM physical layer of the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard specifies that
transmission must be performed using 256 frequency subcarriers. The total
amount of subcarriers to be used is determined by the number of points
needed to perform the IFFT.
After the assembling process described in Section 2.6, only 201 of the
total 256 subcarriers are used. The remaining 55 carriers, that are zero
subcarriers appended at the end of the cited structure, act as guard bands
with the purpose to enable the naturally decay of the signal. These guard
bands are used to decrease emissions in adjacent frequency channels.
Figure 2.7 - 1 and Figure 2.7 - 2 show the structure of the subcarriers before
and after appending the guard bands.

data
DC

1 101 201

Figure 2.7 - 1: Structure composed with data, pilots and zero DC subcarriers.

data
DC

guards

1 101 201 202 256

Figure 2.7 - 2: Structure after appending the guard bands.

CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 28

2.8 Inverse Fast Fourier Transform algorithm

The IFFT is used to produce a time domain signal, as the symbols obtained
after modulation can be considered the amplitudes of a certain range of
sinusoids. This means that each of the discrete samples before applying the
IFFT algorithm corresponds to an individual subcarrier. Besides ensuring
the orthogonality of the OFDM subcarriers, the IFFT represents also a rapid
way for modulating these subcarriers in parallel, and thus, the use of multiple
modulators and demodulators, which spend a lot of time and resources to
perform this operation, is avoided.
Before doing the IFFT operation in the simulator, the subcarriers are
rearranged. Figure 2.8 - 1 shows the subcarrier structure that enters the IFFT
block after performing the cited rearrangement. As seen in the following
figure, zero subcarriers are kept in the center of the structure.

data

DC
guards

1 2 101 102 156 157 256

Figure 2.8 - 1: Rearrangement performed before realizing the IFFT operation.

Furthermore, the FFT (or IFFT) should be of length 2r (where r is an

integer number) to facilitate the realization of the algorithm. For this reason,
the FFT length is given by

NFFT = 2dlog2 (Ndata )e . (2.8 - 1)

2.9 The cyclic prefix

The robustness of any OFDM transmission against multipath delay spread
is achieved by having a long symbol period with the purpose of minimizing
the inter-symbol interference. Figure 2.9 - 1 depicts one way to perform the
cited long symbol period, creating a cyclically extended guard interval where
each OFDM symbol is preceded by a periodic extension of the signal itself.
This guard interval, that is actually a copy of the last portion of the data
symbol, is known as the cyclic prefix (CP).
CHAPTER 2. TRANSMITTER 29

CP
CP

Tg Tb
Tsym

Figure 2.9 - 1: OFDM symbol with the cyclic prefix.

Copying the end of a symbol and appending it to the start results in a

longer symbol time. Thus, the total length of the symbol is

Tsym = Tb + Tg , (2.9 - 1)

where:

• Tsym is the OFDM symbol time,

• Tb is the useful symbol time, and

• Tg represents the CP time.

The parameter G defines the ratio of the CP length to the useful symbol
time. When eliminating ISI10 , it has to be taken into account that the CP
must be longer than the dispersion of the channel. Moreover, it should be as
small as possible since it costs energy to the transmitter. For these reasons,
G11 is usually less than 1/4:
Tg
G= . (2.9 - 2)
Tb

10
Inter-Symbol Interference
11
Values for this parameter are specified in Appendix C.
Chapter 3

Channel

When communicating over a wireless radio channel the received signal cannot
be simply modeled as a copy of the transmitted signal corrupted by additive
Gaussian noise. Instead, signal fading, while caused by the time-varying
characteristics of the propagation environment, appears. In this way, short-
term fluctuations caused by signal scattering of objects in the propagation
environment lead to a phenomenon known as multipath propagation. The
time dispersion in a multipath environment causes the signal to undergo
either flat or frequency-selective fading. Furthermore, the time dispersion
is manifested by the spreading in time of the modulated symbols leading to
inter-symbol interference (ISI). In order to avoid ISI in OFDM systems, the
cyclic prefix time has to be chosen larger than the maximum delay spread of
the channel. In addition, root-raised cosine (RRC) filters, usually used for
band-limiting the transmitted signal, are utilized as interpolation filters in
the simulator.
This chapter deals with the modeling, analysis, and simulation of the
channel. It provides a description of the mentioned RRC filters as well as a
brief explanation about the fading characteristics.
As the simulation results depend strongly on the radio channel, it is very
important to use accurate and realistic channel models in the simulation to
enable realistic and reliable results. Thus, the well-known I-METRA channel
model is introduced.

3.1 Filters
Data transmission over band limited channels requires a technique of pulse
shaping at the transmitter. Since the pulse shaping filter does not cause
inter-symbol interference (ISI), this implies the fundamental shapes of the

30
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 31

pulses to be such that they do not interfere each other. A criteria that
ensures non-interference specifies the shape of the pulses to be such that its
amplitude decays rapidly outside the pulse interval. A widely used filter for
this purpose is the well known raised cosine filter, which satisfies Nyquist’s
first criterion1 . However, in practical applications the overall magnitude
response of the raised cosine spectrum is equally split between the transmitter
and the receiver, thus obtaining square-root raised cosine filters, also known
as root-raised cosine (RRC) filters. The advantage of such subsystems is that
if the transmit side filter is stimulated by an impulse, then the receive one
is forced to filter an input pulse with a shape that is identical to its own
impulse response, therefore setting up a matched filter and maximizing the
SNR while at the same time minimizing ISI [12].
The RRC filter is generally used in series pairs so that the total filtering
effect is that of a raised cosine filter. Since the frequency response of the
transmit and receive filters is multiplied at the receiver, the receiver sees a
signal that has been filtered by a raised cosine filter overall:

HT (f )HR (f ) = Hrc (f ), (3.1 - 1)

|HT (f )| = |HR (f )| = Hrrc (f ). (3.1 - 2)

Hrrc (f ) defines the root-raised cosine filter frequency response, while Hrc(f)
is used for defining the raised cosine filter.
The ideal root-raised cosine filter frequency response is simply the square
root of the frequency response of a raised cosine filter. The RRC frequency
response is specified in Equation 3.1 - 3, and it consists of a unity gain at low
frequencies, the square root of a raised cosine function in the middle, and a
total attenuation at high frequencies.


 1 |f | ≤ fN (1 − α)
 r   
Hrrc (f ) = cos πT2α
sym 1−α
|f | − 2Tsym
fN (1 − α) ≤ |f | ≤ fN (1 + α)


0 |f | > fN (1 + α)

(3.1 - 3)
1
Nyquist’s first criterion establishes the conditions the transmission pulse p(t) must
accomplish to avoid ISI. It specifies p(t) to be one for the sampling interval of the desired
symbol, and zero for the another symbols:

1 i=k
p(iTs − kTs ) =
0 i 6= k
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 32

fN is the Nyquist frequency defined as

1 Rsym
fN = = ,
2Tsym 2

where Tsym is the modulation symbol duration, and Rsym is the symbol rate.
The width of the central frequencies is defined by the roll-off factor, α,
which determines the sharpness of the frequency response and can take values
comprised between 0 and 1. Specifically, α governs the bandwidth occupied
by the pulse and the rate at which the tails of the pulse decay. Figure 3.1 - 1
shows that when α = 0 the frequency response has a form of a rectangle
offering the narrowest bandwidth but the slowest rate of decay in the time
domain. However, when α = 1 the frequency response is completely round
but the impulse response presents the added benefit of rapidly decaying time
domain tails. Therefore, it can be deduced that the smaller the roll-off factor,
the more efficient is the scheme since it gives the narrowest bandwidth.

1.4 1.5

1.2

0.8 1

0.6
h(t)

0.4

0.2 0.5

-0.2

-0.4 0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Time

(a) Impulse response hrrc (t). (b) Frequency response Hrrc (f ).

Figure 3.1 - 1: Spectral shape and inverse Fourier transform of the RRC pulse.

The most commonly used design methodology for this kind of filters is
the frequency sampling design, where the frequency response of the filter is
sampled at constant intervals and an inverse fourier transform (IFFT) is
applied to the frequency samples to obtain the filter coefficients. The more
the number of frequency samples, the more will the actual response match
the desired response. That means that if more filter taps are used, a more
accurate response is obtained, and therefore, better rejection is given.
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 33

3.2 Fading channel models

3.2.1 Description of the fading channel
In a realistic wireless radio environment, a single received signal is composed
of a number of scattered waves, caused by the reflection and diffraction of the
original transmitted signal by objects in the surrounding geographical area.
These multipath waves are combined at the receiver to give a resultant signal
that can widely vary in amplitude and phase. Physical factors influencing
the characteristics of the fading experienced by the transmitter are multipath
propagation, mobility of the reflecting objects and scatterers, and the relative
motion between the transmitter and the receiver.
The presence of reflecting objects and scatterers in the wireless channel
causes a constant change in the propagation environment. This changing
environment alters the signal energy in amplitude, phase, and time, and as a
result, multipath propagation occurs causing signal fading. The transmitted
signal arrives at the receiver via multiple propagation paths, each of which
has an associated time delay. Because the received signal is spread in time
due to the multipath scatterers at different delays, the channel is said to be
time dispersive. The difference between the largest and the smallest among
these delays defines the maximum delay spread.
On the other hand, when the receiver and the transmitter are in relative
motion, the received signal is subject to a constant frequency shift, called
the Doppler shift (see Equation 3.2 - 1). Therefore, as it occurs in the time
domain, the Doppler spread is defined as the difference between the largest
and the smallest among these frequency shifts,

fd = fM cos ϕ, (3.2 - 1)
where:
• fM = fc v/c is the maximum Doppler shift,

• v is the vehicle speed,

• fc is the carrier frequency,

• c is the speed of light, and

• ϕ is the arrival angle of the received signal component.

Furthermore, a time-varying Doppler shift is induced on each multipath
component if the reflecting objects and scatterers in the propagation channel
are in motion, causing frequency dispersion.
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 34

As a result of such time variations, the response of the channel to any

signal transmitted through it will change with time. Hence, physical channels
with time-varying transmission characteristics may be characterized as time-
varying linear filters. Such linear filters are described by a time-varying
impulse response, h(t, τ ), which represents the response of the channel at
time t due to an impulse applied at time t − τ . Thus, the variable t specifies
the time dependance in the variations of the impulse response due to motion,
whereas τ represents the channel multipath delay for a fixed value of t.
Assuming that the pass-band input signal to a multipath fading channel
is s(t), and ignoring the effects of AWGN, the pass-band output signal is
given by
r(t) = s(t) ⊗ h(t, τ ), (3.2 - 2)
where ⊗ represents the continuous-time convolution.
The pass-band channel impulse response can also be written as

h(t, τ ) = Re{hb (t, τ ) exp(j2πfc t)}, (3.2 - 3)

where hb (t, τ ) is the baseband equivalent impulse response of the channel,

and fc is the carrier frequency of the pass-band input signal.
When L discrete multipath components exist in the multipath fading
channel, this baseband channel impulse response is written as
L
X
hb (t, τ ) = αi (t, τ )δ(τ − τi (t)) exp(j(2πfc τi (t) + θi (t, τ ))). (3.2 - 4)
i=1

αi (t, τ ) and τi (t, τ ) are the delay dependent instantaneous amplitude and
the time delay associated with the i-th multipath component, respectively.
The instantaneous phase shift encountered by the i-th multipath component
due to its delay is represented by the factor 2πfc τi (t), whereas any other
phase alteration experienced by this multipath component is incorporated in
θi (t, τ ). To simplify Equation 3.2 - 4, the phase delays are lumped together
and represented by

φi (t, τ ) = 2πfc τi (t) + θi (t, τ ).

Tapped delay line channel model

A general model for a time-variant multipath channel consists of a tapped
delay line with uniformly spaced taps, as the one depicted in Figure 3.2 - 1.
The spacing between adjacent taps is K/(M W ), where W is the bandwidth
of the signal that is being transmitted through the channel. Hence, K/(M W )
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 35

defines the time resolution of the channel model implementation, where an

interpolation factor of M/K is being used. Moreover, the tap coefficients,
denoted as ci (t) = αi (t) exp(jφi (t)), are usually modeled as complex-valued
Gaussian random processes which are mutually uncorrelated. The length of
the delay line corresponds to the amount of time dispersion in the multipath
channel, usually called the multipath spread, Tm = L/W , where L represents
the maximum number of possible multipath signal components.

Tm
Input
signal
K/(MW) K/(MW) K/(MW)

c1(t) X c2(t) X cL-1(t) X cL(t) X

Channel
+ output

Aditive
noise

Figure 3.2 - 1: Model for a time-variant multipath channel based on a tapped

delay line.

Delay spread and Doppler spread

As previously explained, two manifestations of the channel time variations
are the delay spread and the Doppler spread. Depending on their values,
the signal transmitted through the channel will undergo flat or frequency-
selective fading. On one hand, the delay spread is a measure of the spread
in time over which the multipath signals arrive. It is a measure of the time
dispersion of a channel, and is very important in determining how fast the
symbol rate can be in digital communications. One of the most widely used
measurement for characterizing the delay spread of a multipath channel is
the rms delay spread, στ . Furthermore, the inverse of the delay spread defines
the coherence bandwidth, Bcoh . It is the frequency separation at which two
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 36

frequency components of the signal undergo independent attenuations and a

measure of the range of frequencies over which the multipath fading channel
frequency response can be considered to be flat or not.
On the other hand, the Doppler spread, Bd , is a measure of the spectral
broadening caused by the time rate of change of the multipath components
due to the relative motion between transmitter and receiver. Depending on
how rapidly the multipath components change, the channel may be classified
either as a fast or a slow fading channel. Inversely proportional to one another
are the Doppler spread and the coherence time. The coherence time, Tcoh ,
is the time domain dual of Doppler spread and is used to characterize the
time-varying nature of the frequency dispersiveness of the channel in the
time domain. It is a statistical measure of the time duration over which the
channel impulse response is essentially invariant quantifying the similarity of
the channel response at different times [13]. In 802.16-2004, the coherence
time of the channel is assumed to be longer than the frame duration, leading
to quasi-static scenarios.

Rayleigh and Ricean fading models

Wireless channels can be characterized with tap coefficients that are complex-
valued Gaussian random variables. A channel model where there are only
non line-of-sight communications is characterized by a Rayleigh distribution.
On the contrary, if dominating paths are present, the channel coefficients are
modeled by a Ricean distribution.
As already mentioned, a Rayleigh distribution is normally used to model
NLoS communications. It is statistically characterized by a fading amplitude,
α(t), modeled with a Rayleigh probability distribution, which has zero-mean
Gaussian components. Furthermore, the phase, φ(t), is uniformly distributed
over the interval (0, 2π). The fading amplitude is described by the probability
density function (pdf):
a2
 a
σ2
exp(− 2σ 2) if a≥0
fRay (a) = (3.2 - 5)
0 if a < 0.
On the other hand, when the components of α(t) are Gaussian with non-
zero mean values and the phase is also non-zero mean, the amplitude is
characterized statistically by the Rice probability distribution. In this case,
the channel presents multipath propagation with some dominating paths,
i.e. representing a major part of the channel energy. The pdf of the Ricean
fading amplitude is given by
a2 +ρ2
 a aρ


2 exp(− 2σ 2 )I0 2 if a≥0
fRice (a) = σ σ (3.2 - 6)
0 if a < 0,
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 37

where the parameter ρ2 represents the power of the received non-fading signal
component, and I0 is the modified Bessel function of first kind and order zero.
The Ricean distribution is usually expressed with the K-factor defined
as the ratio of the power of the deterministic signal to the variance of the
multipath component:
ρ2
K = 2. (3.2 - 7)
2σ
If K approaches zero, then the Rice distribution degenerates in a Rayleigh
distribution. Thus, when ρ has values near to 0, K is prone to −∞ dB,
and since the dominant path decreases in amplitude, the Rice distribution
becomes a Rayleigh distribution. Furthermore, if K approaches infinity, one
path will contain the whole channel energy, corresponding to a LoS scenario.

3.2.2 Flat fading

When considering the transmission of a specific signal, the properties of that
signal play a role in determining whether the effects caused by the channel on
it are invariant in any given domain. This relationship existing between the
coherence of the channel and the properties of the signal is captured by the
notion of selectivity. If the channel is selective, then the region of support2
of the transmitted signal is larger than the coherence interval. Therefore, the
channel is not flat with respect to the signal in that domain.
However, when the channel has a constant gain and linear phase response
over a bandwidth that is greater than the bandwidth of the transmitted
signal, the received signal undergoes flat fading. For this kind of fading,
the spectral characteristics of the transmitted signal are preserved when it
propagates through the channel, and only the received signal power fluctuates
due to the multipath effects. For this reason, flat fading channels are also
known as amplitude varying channels. Moreover, they are sometimes referred
to as narrowband channels since the bandwidth of the applied signal is narrow
as compared with the fading bandwidth.
To summarize, a signal undergoes flat fading if

W < Bcoh (3.2 - 8)

and
Tsym > στ . (3.2 - 9)
2
The region of support of a function f (x) is defined as the set χ = x|f (x) 6= 0. The
size of such region is defined to be maxx∈χ (x) − minx∈χ (x).
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 38

3.2.3 Frequency-selective fading

The frequency-selective behaviour of the wireless propagation channel can be
obtained easily from the correlation between two signals (which have different
frequencies) in the receiver. The existence of different delay spread for the
different propagation paths cause the statistical properties of two carriers
to be independent if they are sufficiently frequency spaced. The maximum
frequency difference for which a high correlation level between the signals are
kept is known as the coherence bandwidth of the channel. That means that
for frequency-selective fading the spectrum of the transmitted signal has a
bandwidth which is greater than the coherence bandwidth of the channel.
Under such conditions the channel impulse response has a multipath delay
spread that exceeds the symbol period of the transmitted symbol. When
this occurs, the received signal includes multiple versions of the transmitted
waveform that are attenuated and delayed in time, and hence, the received
signal is distorted. Frequency-selective fading is due to time dispersion of
the transmitted symbols within the channel, thus inducing to inter-symbol
interference (ISI).
To summarize, a signal undergoes frequency-selective fading if
W > Bcoh (3.2 - 10)
and
Tsym < στ . (3.2 - 11)
However, when communicating with OFDM techniques, the effects of
frequency-selective channel conditions can be decreased. Since the signal is
split into many narrowband subchannels, the channel can be considered as
constant (flat) over each OFDM subchannel, provided that the respective
conditions for flat fading channels are accomplished.

3.2.4 Channel model implementation

The goal of this section is to describe the different steps that have been
performed to implement the channel in our simulator. The signal is firstly
oversampled and filtered using an RRC interpolation filter at the transmitter.
The resulting signal is resampled to 100 MHz, that is the channel simulator
sampling frequency. After resampling, the signal is sent through the channel
itself, characterized by the channel model. This channel model distinguishes
three kinds of channels: a block fading channel, a time-variant channel, and
a time-variant block fading channel. At the receiver, some noise is added,
and the signal is decimated from the channel simulator sampling frequency.
Finally, it is filtered and downsampled.
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 39

Block fading channel

The block fading channel [14] is used for simulating slowly-varying fading
channels. That means that the fading varies slowly in time and the channel
coefficient, hi , do not change during the transmission of one OFDM frame,
as it is shown in Figure 3.2 - 2.

channel 1 channel 2 ... channel N

1 OFDM frame

N OFDM frames

Figure 3.2 - 2: Block fading channel model.

Here, the channel realizations for consecutive frames are independent,

which allows for fast BER simulations but not for simulations incorporating
adaptive modulation and coding (AMC).

Time-variant channel
As previously explained, the variation in time of the wireless channel is caused
by user mobility and multipath propagation. The impulse response of time-
varying channels is characterized as a time-variant linear filter, h(t, τ ), and a
frequency shift appears in the received signal, fd , when users are in relative
motion.
The time-variant filtering is implemented in the function "tvfilter ", which
convolutes every sample of the transmitted signal with the instantaneous
impulse response. Since such a filtering operation is of very high complexity,
the "time-variant block fading" model was implemented.
To generate the time-varying characteristic of the fading channel [15], the
function "jakes" is used. It utilizes a so-called sum of sinusoids to perform
this operation.

The assumptions of this model are [16]:

• The transmitter is fixed and employs an omnidirectional antenna, that

has been vertically polarized.

• The field incident on the receiver consists of N azimuthal plane waves.

CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 40

• Each of the N azimuthal plane waves has an arbitrary carrier phase

and an arbitrary angle of arrival. The phase angles are assumed to be
uniformly distributed.

• The N azimuthal plane waves have equal average amplitudes, implying

the absence of a LoS path.

The model assumes that N equal-strength rays arrive at a moving receiver

with uniformly distributed arrival angles, ϕn , such that ray n experiences a
Doppler shift given by
ωn = ωM cos(ϕn ). (3.2 - 12)
As a result, the k-th fading waveform, Tk (t), from a system that has M
independent fading waveforms, each of which is composed of N sinusoids,
can be expressed as in Equation 3.2 - 13:
N
X −1
Tk (t) = Cnk exp j(ωnk t + φnk ), k = 0, 1, 2, ..., M − 1, (3.2 - 13)
n=0

where Cnk , ωnk , and φnk represent the amplitude, frequency, and uniformly
random phase of the n-th complex sinusoid in the k-th fader.
For this situation, ωnk = ωM cos ϕnk , where n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., N − 1, and
k = 0, 1, 2, 3, ..., M − 1. Note that ϕnk , that denotes the n-th arrival angle in
the k-th fader, depends on both, the fading waveform and the sinusoid.
The parameter Cnk can be reduced to a constant value by assuming a
uniform antenna gain pattern and uniformly distributed incident power [15]:
1
C=√ . (3.2 - 14)
N
Furthermore, different spectrum shapes are obtained depending on the
values the parameters φnk and ϕnk take. Hence, a flat spectrum, a Jake’s
spectrum, and a Clarke’s spectrum are defined.

- Flat spectrum
The parameter ϕnk takes the values ±π/2 thus making null the operation
cos ϕnk .
Therefore, the exponential describing the fading waveform follows the
next expression:
Xt = exp(j(2πfd t + φnk )). (3.2 - 15)
 Streuobjekte

CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL
Sender
bewegter
feststehende
Streuobjekte
41
v Empfänger

Figure 2.4: Szenario of a frequency-selective, time-variant fading-channel

The recently mentioned factors are of a random character, i.e. they are described by a random process. The
- probability
Clarke’sdensity
spectrum
funtions (pdf) of these processes are affected by two independent factors:
At the receiving side we encounter the sum of all paths, hence, we are interested in the pdf of that sum. The
For this
pdf of kind
a sum of spectrum,
of statistically independenthowever, theisphase
random processes identical of the
to the sinusoid,
convolution of all φnk , Taking
pdf’s. is zero.
Therefore, the
into account formula
permanently for the
changing fading
echo-paths to be too costly.isThe central limit theorem 1 states that a
proveswaveform
sufficient number of independent random processes are approximating a Gaussian or normal-pdf. According to
its mean the magnitude of a complex-valued Gaussian process is Ricean or Rayleigh distributed, i.e. if a line of
Xt = exp(j(2πf
sight exists the simulation of mobile-channels cos ϕ
demands a dRicean nk )).
process (3.2 - 16)
and a Rayleigh process, respectively,
if no line of sight is available (”worst case”).
Furthermore, the doppler effect plays a crucial role. Arising from the movement between transmitter and
receiver the receiving signal is shifted in frequency domain. The doppler frequency f D in turn is a random
-Jake’s spectrum
process due to the random direction of motion2 of the receiver in regard of the transmitter.

Finally, the Jakes spectrum takes v

fD = into
f0 cos account
α all the parameters(2.5)
that
3 c 0
have been previously described :
Thinking of the receiving signal as a superposition of many discrete frequencies of identical amplitude the pdf
describes the amount of spectral lines in a frequency segment ∆f . The power within that segment results of
adding all powers of thoseX t = exp(j(2πf
spectral lines comprisedd tbycosthe ϕ nk + φ
segment. )). of the doppler effect,
Onnkaccount (3.2that
- 17)
effects the position of the spectral lines ,the spectral distribution of the power corresponds to the power density
spectrum. One finds, that such a distribution is given by the so-called Jakes distribution.

1
10

0
10
S(f ) in dB

-1
10

PSfrag replacements -2
10
-100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100
f in Hz

Figure 2.5: Jakes-spectrum, maximum doppler frequency f D,max = 50Hz

1 Cf. Figure 3.2 - 3: Jake’s Doppler spectrum.
[Kam96] section A3.3 or [OL02] section 6.4.1
2 The doppler frequency depends on the angle of incident α of the signal.

The values of the parameters for the three kinds of spectrum already
defined are summarized in Table 3.2 - 1.
Spectrum ϕnk φnk
Flat ±π/2 6= 0
Clarke 6= ±π/2 0
Jake 6= ±π/2 6= 0

Table 3.2 - 1: Spectrum shapes for time-variant channels.

3
Simulation results have been performed using this spectrum.
CHAPTER 3. CHANNEL 42

Time-variant block fading channel

This kind of channels are a combination of block fading channels and time-
variant channels. The channel filtering operation is the same as in the block
fading channel, i.e. a constant channel is assumed during one OFDM frame.
The generated channel impulse responses in successive frames are changing
in a time-varying manner, i.e. the channel changes steadily. The steading
changing channel allows for AMC simulations when the channel changes
slowly compared to the OFDM frame duration.

3.3 The I-METRA channel model

The power delay profiles (PDP) specifying the energy distribution for several
propagation scenarios are defined according to I-METRA. These scenarios
are derived from measurements in typical indoor and outdoor environments,
and specify the power delay profile of each scenario from the relative delays
and the average power for each delay.
The I-METRA channel model specifies the channel taps at a sample rate
of 100 MHz, i.e. it assumes that the 20 MHz bandwidth signal is oversampled
by a factor of five. Moreover, it is assumed that the channel supports a
maximum number of eight paths [17].
Table 3.3 - 1 shows all different scenarios supported by the channel model.
The scenarios A to F are from I-METRA, U is a simple uncorrelated flat
fading channel, and AWGN represents a channel that is only affected by an
additive white Gaussian noise, which also have uncorrelated flat fading. The
values for scenarios D, E, and F have been obtained from Medbo models A,
B and C, respectively.
Model Environment Scattering K (dB)4 RMS delay
situation spread (ns)
U Uncorrelated flat fading LoS/NLoS −∞ 0
A Flat fading LoS/NLoS −∞ 0
B Residential LoS/NLoS 10 15
C Residential/Small office LoS/NLoS 3 30
D (A) Typical office NLoS −∞ 50
E (B) Large office NLoS −∞ 100
F (C) Wide space (in- and outdoor) NLoS −∞ 150

Table 3.3 - 1: Channel model scenarios.

4
The Rician factor, K, utilized when LoS transmissions are being performed, is only
applied for the first tap.
Chapter 4

Receiver

As illustrated in Figure 4.0 - 1, the receiver basically performs the reverse

operation as the transmitter as well as a channel estimation necessary to
reveal the unknown channel coefficients. This section explains the different
steps performed by the receiver to reconstruct the transmitted bits.

Pilot

Received Output
data Remove Remove bits
FFT256 Disassembler Demapper Decoder
CP zeros

Channel
Training
estimator

Figure 4.0 - 1: Receiver of the WiMAX system.

Reed
Convolutional
Solomon Puncture Interleaver
Firstly,
Encoder the CP Encoder
is removed
and the received signal is converted to the
frequency domain using, in this case, the FFT algorithm. As it has been
previously explained in Section 2.6, an OFDM symbol is composed by data,
pilots, a zero DC subcarrier, and some guard bands. Thus, a process to
separate all these subcarriers is needed. First, the guard bands are removed,
and then, a disassembling is performed to obtain pilots, data, and trainings.
The training is used in the channel estimator, which calculates the channel
coefficients. The estimated channel coefficients can be used in the demapper
to perform an equalization of the data, and so, compensate the frequency-
selective fading of the multipath propagation channel. Once the data has
been demapped, it enters the decoder block.

43
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 44

4.1 Fast Fourier Transform algorithm

As explained in Section 2.8, the IFFT algorithm represents a rapid way for
modulating a group of subcarriers in parallel. Either the FFT or the IFFT
are a linear pair of processes, therefore the FFT is necessary to convert the
signal again to the frequency domain1 . The number of points used to perform
the FFT is also described in Section 2.8.

4.2 Removing the guard bands

When removing the subcarriers that correspond to the guard bands, the
frequency structure has to be taken into account. Although zero padding
acting as guard band is appended at the end of the subcarrier structure
at the transmitter, a rearrangement of this subcarriers is performed when
doing the IFFT operation, as shown in Figure 2.8 - 1. Thus, the guard bands
are removed from the center of the OFDM symbol, that is where they are
allocated after the arranging process.

4.3 Disassembler
The disassembler deals with the task of separating the signal, either in time or
in frequency domain, to get data, training, and pilots. These three different
symbol streams form the output of the disassembler.

4.4 Channel estimator

The message sent by the transmitter is modified when it passes through the
channel, as some noise is added to the transmitted signal. Furthermore, if
the channel is a wireless channel, the received signal is additionally affected
by the multiple reflections due to multipath transmission. Thus, the receiver
must determine, from the received signal, which of all possible messages was
the transmitted one. On the other hand, detection algorithms at the receiver
require knowledge of the channel impulse response (CIR). This knowledge
can be provided by performing channel estimation.
Usually, channel estimation is based on known sequences of bits, which
are unique at the transmitter and repeated in every transmission burst. This
way, the channel estimator is able to estimate CIR for each burst separately
1
Remember that the data symbols, originally in frequency domain, were converted to
the time domain in the transmitter using the IFFT.
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 45

by exploiting the known transmitted bits and the corresponding received

samples. In our case, channel estimation is based on the technique of least-
squares (LS) and is performed using one training symbol per carrier.
The received signal on the k-th subcarrier yk can be expressed as follows:

yk = pk hk + nk , (4.4 - 1)

where hk is the channel coefficient for the k-th subcarrier, pk is the training
symbol, and nk is a noise symbol.
The LS channel estimates can be obtained by finding the minimum squared
error, as expressed in Equation 4.4 - 2:

hk = arg min |yk − pk hk |.

b (4.4 - 2)
hk

If white Gaussian noise is assumed, Equation 4.4 - 2 results in

hk,LS = (p∗k pk )−1 p∗k yk ,

b (4.4 - 3)

where the expressions (·)∗ and (·)−1 denote conjugation and inverse operation,
respectively. This estimator is implemented for all subcarriers where a pilot
symbol unequal to zero is transmitted.
In the simulator, channel estimation is implemented using either the
short, the long or both training symbols. The use of one or another training
sequence depends on the values of the averaging parameters.
The long training used for channel estimation is PEVEN , and as described
in Equation 2.5 - 2, it has null values for the odd indices. If only the long
training sequence is used for channel estimation, Equation 4.4 - 3 results in

hk,LS = 0.25p∗k yk .
b (4.4 - 4)

The short training has values different than zero only for the indices that
are multiple of 4, as defined in Equation 2.5 - 1. Here, Equation 4.4 - 3 reduces
to the expression
hk,LS = 0.125p∗k yk .
b (4.4 - 5)
A better channel estimate can be achieved if averaging in the frequency
domain is performed. This way, the averaging parameter defines how many
subcarriers are taken into account when performing the cited averaging.
While small averaging factors improve the performance in strongly frequency-
selective channels, large averaging factors improve the performance in flat
fading channels.
The two parameters defining the described averaging factors are called
LongAveraging and ShortAveraging, and can be zero or positive. A value
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 46

of "zero" means that no averaging over the corresponding training sequence

is performed, and so, the corresponding training symbol is not used while
performing the channel estimation. In this way, it can also be determined if
only the short or long training sequence, or both training sequences are used
for channel estimation.

4.5 Demapper
At the receiving end of the communication link the demapper provides the
interface between the transmission channel and the functions that compute
and deliver estimates of the transmitted data bits to the user. Furthermore,
the demapper operates on the waveform that is received in each separate
transmission symbol interval and produces a number or a set of numbers
that represent an estimate of a transmitted binary or M-ary symbol. Thus,
the demapping methods are used for decision metrics with the aim of making
a decision about which bit, "zero" or "one", was transmitted. This decision
metric can be as simple as hard decision, or more sophisticated, being then
a soft decision.
Hard demapping methods output a hard decision as a function of the
input, and this form of output is application-dependent. However, the soft
demapping outputs a real number, in the form of a log-likelihood ratio. This
is the logarithm of the ratio between the likelihood that the target produced
the speech input and the likelihood that a non-target produced the input. In
contrast, this form of output is application-independent in the sense that this
likelihood ratio output can theoretically be used to make optimal decisions
for any given target prior.

4.5.1 Hard Demapping

Hard demapping is based on the minimum Euclidean distances between the
received symbol and all allowed points in the constellation map. This method
involves calculating all cited distances and selecting as the received symbol
the point in the constellation map with the smallest Euclidean distance.
Equation 4.5 - 1 gives the formula to calculate the Euclidean distance from
which the decision metric is obtained. As it can be seen, the knowledge of the
channel coefficients, or its estimates, is needed to implement hard demapping:

dE = |y − hs|. (4.5 - 1)
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 47

dE is the Euclidean distance, y denotes the received symbol, h represents

the channel coefficients, and s is used to denote the transmitted symbols.
Thus, the decision metric is calculated as follows:

sb = argmins dE = argmins |y − hs|. (4.5 - 2)

4.5.2 Soft demapping

Soft demapping uses log-likelihood ratios [18] to propose a decision metric.
This log-likelihood ratios are calculated for every bit of the symbol. The
method gives probabilities of well receiving a bit or not. These probabilities
can be further used to improve the performance of the succeeding Viterbi
decoder. In the simulator, the so-called max-log-MAP was implemented.
The log-likelihood ratio (LLR) of decision b̂k is defined in Equation 4.5 - 3:
P
s|b =1 p(y|s)
LLR(bk ) = ln P k . (4.5 - 3)
s|bk =0 p(y|s)

The conditional pdf2 of the received bit, which is complex Gaussian, is

defined as follows:
1 |hs − y|2
 
1
p(y|s) = √ exp − ,
2πσv 2 σv2

where σv2 is the noise variance of the signal, and σv the standard deviation.
Thus, Equation 4.5 - 3 yields
n o
1 |hs−y|2
P
s|bk =1 exp − 2 σv2
LLR(bk ) = ln P n o. (4.5 - 4)
1 |hs−y|2
s|bk =0 exp − 2 σ 2
v

Since the calculation of Equation 4.5 - 4 is of very high complexity a log-

sum approximation is used. This approximation is good as Plong as the sum
in the left-hand side is dominated by the largest term: ln j zj ≈ maxj ln zj .
Thus, the computational complexity is reduced, and the LLR is calculated
as in Equation 4.5 - 5:
n 2
o
maxs|bk =1 exp − 12 |hs−y|
σv2
LLR(bk ) ≈ ln n 2
o. (4.5 - 5)
maxs|bk =0 exp − 12 |hs−y|
σ 2
v

2
Probability Density Function
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 48

At the end, the algorithm consists on calculating the minimum distance

between the received symbol and all symbols in the constellation map where
the bit bk is equal to "one", the minimum distance between the received
symbol and the constellation points where the bit bk is equal to "zero" in
this position, and then, taking the difference between both distances:

LLR(bk ) = min |hs − y|2 − min |hs − y|2 . (4.5 - 6)

s|bk =1 s|bk =0

A positive LLR corresponds to a "zero", and a negative LLR corresponds

to a "one". Therefore, the larger the LLR is in10absolute00term the higher is
the probability that a "zero" or a "one" was transmitted.
1-
An example of how the LLR calculation works x 1 to be shown next.
-1 is going .

-
The example uses a 4-QAM constellation map, and thed1 received symbol has
11 01
been represented with an "x". Moreover, channel coefficients
-1 - equal to "one"
have been assumed to make the example easier to explain. b b
1 0

The example begins with the calculation of the LLR for the bit b0 , situated
on the right side, as shown in Figure 4.5 - 1.

10 00 10 00
1- 1- d2
x -1 x 1
-1 1. .
-

-
-

d1
11 01 11 01
-1 - -1 -
b1b0 b1b0

(a) (b)

Figure 4.5 - 1: Example

10
of00calculating the LLR for the bit b0 . In subfigure
1 - d2 between the received bit and b0 = 1 is calculated.
(a), the minimum distance
Subfigure (b) makes
-1 the x same
1
calculation for b0 = 0.
.
-

11
d1 is the minimum 01
-1 - distance between the received bit and the points in
the constellation map that b1bhave
0 a bit equal to "one" in the position of the bit
b0 . The same operation is performed for the bit b0 equal to "zero", obtaining
the distance d2 . The numerical values for these distances are d1 = 1.56
and d2 = 0.92. The LLR can be calculated as the difference between both
distances: LLR = d1 − d2 . Replacing the numerical values, it has been
obtained a result of 0.64 for LLR(b0 ).
 10 00
1-
d1 x
-1 1.
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 49

-
11 01
-1 -
The same steps must be followed to get the LLR value 0 the bit b1 . This
b1bfor
process is depicted in Figure 4.5 - 2. In this case, d1 = 1.43, d2 = 0.92, and
LLR(b1 ) = 0.51.

10 00 10 00
1- 1- d2
d1 x x
-1 1. -1 1.

-
-

11 01 11 01
-1 - -1 -
b1b0 b1b0

(a) Calculation of d1 . (b) Calculation of d2 .

Figure 4.5
10 - 2: Example
00 of calculating the LLR for the bit b1 .
1- d2
Both LLR(b-1 0 ) andx LLR(b
1. 1 ) have positive values. Therefore, it can be
-

concluded that the symbol "00" is the one that have been transmitted with
11
the highest probability. 01
-1 -
b1b0

4.6 Decoder
The final stage of receive processing is the decoder. A block diagram of the
decoder is depicted in Figure 4.6 - 1.

Insert Viterbi Reed-Solomon

Deinterleaver
Zeros Decoder Decoder

Figure 4.6 - 1: Block diagram of the decoding process.

The decoder accepts the sequence of bits or LLRs from the demapper
and, in accordance with the encoding method that was used, attempts to
reproduce the information originally generated by the source. Like in the
encoder block, the decoder is also composed of four steps, which perform
diverse operations with the aim of reversing the process done by the encoder.
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 50

4.6.1 Deinterleaving
The deinterleaver rearranges the bits from each burst in the correct way by
ordering them consecutively as before the interleaving process. It consists of
two blocks, a general block deinterleaver and a matrix deinterleaver.
These blocks work similarly as the ones used in the interleaver. The
general block deinterleaver rearranges the elements of its input according to
an index vector. The matrix deinterleaver performs block deinterleaving by
filling a matrix with the input symbols column by column, and then, sending
its contents to the output row by row. The parameters used in both blocks
are the same as those ones used in the interleaving process3 .

4.6.2 Inserting zeros

The block named "Insert Zeros" deals with the task of reversing the process
performed by the "Puncture" block. As previously explained in Section 2.2.3,
the puncturing process consists of deleting bits from a stream. The receiver
does not know the value of the deleted bits but it can know their position
from the puncturing vectors. Thus, zeros are used to fill the corresponding
hollows of the stream in order to get the same code rate as before performing
the puncturing process.
The inserted zeros can also be seen as erasures from the channel. They
have no influence on the metric calculation of the succeeding Viterbi decoder
described in the following section.

4.6.3 Viterbi decoder

The Viterbi algorithm reduces the computational load by taking advantage of
the special structure of the trellis code. Another advantage is its complexity,
which is not a function of the number of symbols that compose the codeword
sequence. The Viterbi algorithm performs approximate maximum likelihood
decoding. It involves calculating a measure of similarity or distance between
the received signal at time ti , and all the trellis paths entering each state at
the same time.
The algorithm works by removing those trellis paths from consideration
that could not possibly be candidates for the maximum likelihood choice.
When two paths enter the same state, the one that has the best metric is
chosen as the "surviving" path. The selection of the different "surviving"
paths is performed for all the states. The decoder continues in this way
3
See Section 2.2.4 for the equations that describe the parameters of both, the interleaver
and the deinterleaver.
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 51

to advance deeper into the trellis making decisions by eliminating the least
likely paths. The early rejection of unlikely paths is the fact that reduces
the complexity. The goal of selecting the optimum path can be expressed
equivalently as choosing the codeword with the maximum likelihood metric,
or as choosing the codeword with the minimum distance metric.
Furthermore, the delay introduced in the decoding process has to be taken
into account. The rejection of possible paths does not really begin until the
third step in the representation in the trellis diagram. This is due to the fact
that until this time two branches can not have converged in one state, and
thus, no decision can be done. This delay effect is considered in a parameter
called traceback depth, which specifies how many symbols may preceed the
beginning of the algorithm. For code rates of 1/2, a typical value for the
traceback depth is about five times the constraint length of the code.
Another parameters of the Viterbi decoder block of Simulink are the trellis
structure used in the convolutional encoder, the decision type of decoding,
and the operation mode. They are defined as follows:

• The type of signals that can support the Viterbi decoder block are
based on the decision type parameter. This parameter can have three
values: unquantized, hard-decision, or soft-decision.
As the decision process has been implemented in the demapper, the
last kind of decision type, that is the "unquantized", is the one used
in our simulator. It accepts real numbers as inputs for the decoder
block. The positive numbers are interpreted as a logical zero, and the
negative ones, as a logical one. However, when this parameter is set to
"soft-decision", the entries of this block are integers between 0 (most
confident decision for logical zero) and 2b (most confident decision for
logical one), being b the number of soft-decision bits.

• The operation mode parameter controls which method the block uses
for transitioning between successive frames.
The "truncated" mode, in which each frame is treated independently
and the traceback depth parameter starts at the state with the best
metric and ends in the all-zeros state, is the operation mode used in
the simulator.
Other values for this parameter are the "continuous" and "terminated"
modes.

For more details about these parameters consult the documentation help
of Matlab, or see [19].
CHAPTER 4. RECEIVER 52

4.6.4 Reed-Solomon decoder

The last part of the decoding process is the Reed-Solomon decoding. It
performs the necessary operations to decode the signal, and get, at the end,
the original message sent by the source. As in all the receiver blocks, the RS
decoder reverses the different steps performed by its corresponding encoding
block, explained in Section 2.2.1. Thus, the RS decoder takes codewords
of length n, and, after decoding the signal, it returns messages of length
k, being n = 255 and k = 239, the same as the ones described in the RS
encoder. Furthermore, the implementation for the RS decoder block has
been performed with a Matlab S-function using a C-file4 .
The block diagram of the RS decoder is depicted in Figure 4.6 - 2.

Reshape Insert Insert RS Select

Unbuffer Buffer
1 zeros 1 zeros 2 decoder rows

Figure 4.6 - 2: Block diagram of the Reed-Solomon decoder.

The input of the RS decoder block of Simulink accepts vectors, with a

length that are integer multiples of ln. Its output is, in this case, a vector
Zeros 1
with a length that is the same integer multiple of lk. Hence, a process to get
Reshape Vertical Select Reshape RS Reshape Select Reshape
the correct
1 amount
concat. of bytes
rows 1 that enter
2 thedecoder
RS decoder 3 block,rows
and2 afterwards,
4
rearranges these bytes, needs to be performed firstly.
Zeros 2
After the encoding process, a data block with size (k + 2t) × NRS is
obtained, as it can be appreciated in Figure 2.2 - 2. Nonetheless, the structure
that will enter the decoder block has to be the same as the one that outputs
the encoder block, before discarding the corresponding added bytes from
the shortening and puncturing process. "Reshape 1" deals with the task of
rearranging the data in a matrix form, with the specified size (k + 2t) × NRS ,
being k and t the parameters listed in Table 2.2 - 1. The block "Insert zeros
1" adds 239 − k zero-bytes at the beginning of the structure with the aim
Reshape Insert Insert RS Select
of constructing
1 zeros the
1 zero
zerosprefix.
2 The 16 −
Unbuffer 2k parity
decoder
Buffer
rowsbytes are obtained from

"Insert zeros 2". "Unbuffer" arranges the data from the matrix structure in
a row vector. It has to be taken into account that this block introduces a
delay equal to one frame in the system. Finally, "Select rows" has the task of
selecting only the k original data bytes, and the "Buffer"-block redistributes
its input samples in a new frame size, kNRS .
4
The sourcecode used to generate a Matlab S-funcion is available from
http://rscode.sourceforge.net and has been published under the Lesser General Public
License (LGPL).
Chapter 5

MIMO transmission

Applying multiple antennas at both ends of a communication system can not

only greatly improve the capacity and the throughput of a wireless link in
flat-fading but also in frequency-selective fading channels, specially when the
environment provides rich scattering.
Multiple-input multiple-output systems, also known as MIMO, have MEA1
arrays at both transmit and receive sides. High data rates are achieved when
implementing such structures without increasing neither the bandwidth nor
the total transmission power. Additionally, the use of multiple antennas at
both transmitter and receiver provides a diversity advantage, that means a
significant increase in capacity, i.e. improvement in SNR and hence in BER
at the receiver [20] [21].
This chapter presents the theoretical background of the MIMO channel.
Space-time coding (STC) as well as the maximum ratio combining (MRC)
technique are presented as the solutions implemented to perform the MIMO
transmission and reception, respectively. Finally, a detailed description of
the MIMO implementation in the simulator is included.

5.1 MIMO communications theory

When communicating through a wireless channel, transmitted signals suffer
from attenuation and fading due to multipath in the channel, thus making it
difficult for the receiver to determine these signals. Diversity techniques take
advantage of the multipath propagation characteristics to improve receiver
sensitivity. MIMO systems utilize antenna diversity to obtain the mentioned
improvement and hence combat fading.
1
Multi-Element Antenna

53
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 54

A MIMO system characterizes itself by using multiple antennas at both

transmitter and receiver. However, if only multiple antennas are deployed
at one end of the communication system, or both ends use a single antenna,
the MIMO system changes into a SIMO, MISO or SISO system [22]. In this
way, when only multiple antennas are deployed at the receiver, the MIMO
system reduces to a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) system. Similarly,
when the system has only one receive antenna but multiple antennas at
the transmitter side, the MIMO system reduces to a multiple-input single-
output (MISO). When both, transmitter and receiver, use a single antenna,
the MIMO system simplifies to a single-input single-output(SISO).
The main advantages of MIMO channels over traditional SISO channels
are the array gain, the diversity gain, and the multiplexing gain. Array gain
and diversity gain are not exclusive of MIMO channels and also exist in SIMO
and MISO channels. Multiplexing gain, however, is a unique characteristic
of MIMO channels [23]. Array gain is the improvement in SINR2 obtained
by coherently combining the signals on multiple transmit or multiple receive
dimensions and is easily characterized as a shift of the BER curve due to the
gain in SINR. Diversity gain is the improvement in link reliability obtained
by receiving replicas of the information signal through independently fading
links, branches, or dimensions. It is characterized by an steepen slope of the
BER curve in the low BER region.
The three major forms of diversity exploited in wireless communication
systems are temporal, frequency, and spatial diversity. Transmit diversity is
more difficult to exploit than receive diversity since special modulation and
coding schemes are required, i.e. space-time coding, whereas receive diversity
simply needs the multiple receive dimensions to fade independently without
requiring any specific modulation or coding scheme.

5.1.1 The MIMO channel model

The signal model for a MIMO channel composed by NT transmit and NR
receive dimensions is
y = Hs + n, (5.1 - 1)
where s ∈ CNT ×1 is the transmitted vector, H ∈ CNR ×NT is the channel
matrix, y ∈ CNR ×1 is the received vector, and n ∈ CNR ×1 is the noise vector.
This signal model represents a single transmission. For a communication with
multiple transmissions the signals are indexed with a time-discrete index as
y(t) = Hs(t)+n(t). The channel can even be considered time-varying, where
it may be denoted as H(t).
2
Signal to Interference-plus-Noise Ratio
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 55

Figure 5.1 - 1 depicts a MIMO scenario with NT transmit antennas and

NR receive antennas. The signals at the transmit antenna array are denoted
by vector s(t) = [s1 (t), s2 (t), ..., sNT (t)]T , and similarly, the signals at the
receiver are y(t) = [y1 (t), y2 (t), ..., yNR (t)]T , where (·)T denotes transposition,
and sm (t) and ym (t) are the signals at the m-th transmit antenna port and
at the m-th receive antenna port, respectively.

s1(t) y1(t)

scattering
s2(t) y2(t)
s(t) .
.
medium .
. y(t)
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .

sNT(t) yNR(t)
NT transmit NR receive
antennas antennas

Figure 5.1 - 1: A MIMO channel model in a scattering environment.

The MIMO radio channel describing the connection between transmitter

and receiver can be expressed as
 
α11 α12 ··· α1NT
 α21 α22 ··· α2NT 
H =  .. , (5.1 - 2)
 
.. .. ..
 . . . . 
αNR 1 αNR 2 · · · αNR NT

where αnm is the complex transmission coefficient from antenna m at the

transmitter to antenna n at the receiver. Moreover, the path gains, {αij },
are correlated depending on the propagation environment, the polarization
of the antenna elements, and the spacing between them.
The relation between the vectors s(t) and y(t) can be expressed as

y(t) = H(t)s(t). (5.1 - 3)

In order to take the channel correlation into account, which has a strong
impact on the achievable performance of the system, two different spatial
channel models are considered.
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 56

Spatially uncorrelated channel

In spatially uncorrelated channels, the antenna elements are located far away
from each other. Thus, the entries of the channel matrix H can be modeled
as independent identically distributed (i.i.d.), circularly symmetric, complex
Gaussian random variables, with zero mean and unit variance:

H ∼ NCNT ×NR (0, 1). (5.1 - 4)

Spatially correlated channel

For spatially correlated channels, the widely known Kronecker model is used
[24]. In order to model this kind of channel, a transmit correlation matrix
RT , a receive correlation matrix RR , and an i.i.d. complex Gaussian matrix
G ∈ NCNT ×NR are used:
1/2 1/2
H = RR G(RT )T . (5.1 - 5)
The correlation matrices RR and RT are taken from the I-METRA model
explained in Section 3.3. These matrices are calculated as RR = E{HHH }
and RT = E{HH H}. Furthermore, they are normalized in such a way that
E{tr(HH H)}= NR NT , as in the i.i.d. case3 .

5.1.2 Space-Time Coding

Space-time coding (STC) is an efficient approach to exploit the enormous
diversity offered by the MIMO. It is used to obtain gains due to spatial
diversity via multiple transmit and receive antennas. Moreover, a diversity
gain proportional to the number of antennas at both transmit and receive
sides can be achieved. One popular representation of these codes is the
Alamouti scheme [25] for two transmit antennas.
STC techniques are used to improve the performance of MIMO systems.
Their central issue is the exploitation of multipath effects in order to achieve
very high spectral efficiencies. With this purpose, the principal aim of the
space-time coding lies in the design of two-dimensional signal matrices to
be transmitted during a specified time period on a number of antennas.
Thus, it introduces redundancy in space through the addition of multiple
antennas, and redundancy in time through channel coding, enabling us to
exploit diversity in the spatial dimension, as well as a obtaining a coding
gain. Therefore, the transmit diversity plays an integral role in the STC
design.
3
A complete definition of the correlation matrices is held in Section B.1.
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 57

The Alamouti concept

Alamouti [25] [26] introduced a very simple scheme of space-time block coding
(STBC) allowing transmissions from two antennas with the same data rate
as on a single antenna, but increasing the diversity at the receiver from one
to two in a flat fading channel. As shown in Figure 5.1 - 2, the Alamouti
algorithm uses the space and the time domain to encode data, increasing the
Space-time coding
• 2x1 Alamouti Scheme
performance of the system by coding the signals over the different transmitter
branches. Thus,
• STC withthe Alamouti
rate 1 code achieves diversity two with full data rate
as it transmits two symbols in two time intervals.
Æ 2 input symbols are transmitted in two time steps
(f1) (f0)
t1 t0
-1 1
s* s
2 1 2 0
Input Output
s = (s0s1) r = (r0r1)

1 1
s* s
2 0 2 1

The received symbols are:

Figure 5.1 - 2: 2×1 Alamouti scheme.

In the first time slot, transmit antennas Tx1 and Tx2 are sending symbols
s0 and s1 , respectively. In the next time slot, symbols −s∗1 and s∗0 are sent,
where (·)∗ denotes complex conjugation. Each symbol is multiplied by a
factor of a squared root of two in order to achieve a transmitted average power
of one in each time step. Furthermore, it is supposed that the channel, which
has transmission coefficients h1 and h2 , remains constant and frequency flat
over the two consecutive time steps.
The received vector, r, is formed by stacking two consecutive received
data samples in time, resulting in
1
r = √ Sh + n, (5.1 - 6)
2

where r = [r0 , r1 ]T represents the received vector, h = [h1 , h2 ]T is the complex

channel vector, n = [n0 , n1 ]T is the noise at the receiver, and S defines the
STC:
 
s0 s1
S= .
s∗1 −s∗0
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 58

The vector equation in Equation 5.1 - 6 can be read explicitly as

1 1
r0 = √ s0 h1 + √ s1 h2 + n0 , (5.1 - 7)
2 2
−1 1
r1 = √ s∗1 h1 + √ s∗0 h2 + n1 . (5.1 - 8)
2 2
At the receiver, the vector y of the received signal is formed according to
y = [r0 , r1∗ ]T , which is equivalent to
1 1
r0 = √ s0 h1 + √ s1 h2 + n0 , (5.1 - 9)
2 2
1 1
r1∗ = √ s0 h∗2 − √ s1 h∗1 + n∗1 . (5.1 - 10)
2 2
These both equations can be rewritten in a matrix system as specified in
Equation 5.1 - 11:
      
r0 1 h1 h2 s0 n0
=√ + . (5.1 - 11)
r1∗ ∗
2 h2 −h1
∗
s1 n∗1
The short notation for this system is the following:
1
y = √ Hν s + ne, (5.1 - 12)
2
where ne represents the new noise vector obtained after the conjugation of
e = [n0 , n∗1 ]T .
the second equation, n
The resulting virtual (2 × 2) channel matrix, Hν , is orthogonal, i.e.
Hν H Hν = Hν Hν H = h2 I2 ,
where (·)H represents the hermitian operation, I2 is the 2 × 2 identity matrix,
and h2 is the power gain of the channel, with h2 = |h1 |2 + |h2 |2 . Due to this
orthogonality, the Alamouti scheme decouples the MISO channel into two
virtually independent channels with channel gain h2 and diversity d = 2.
The mentioned channel gain is deduced from Equation 5.1 - 13, which
specifies that transmitted symbols can be estimated at the receiver as the
result of multiplying the received signals by the hermitian of the virtual
channel matrix. After performing the corresponding operations it results in
a signal with a gain of h2 plus some modified noise4 :
1
s = Hν H y = √ h2 s + HH
b νne. (5.1 - 13)
2
4
The whole derivation of Equation 5.1 - 13 can be found in Section B.2.1.
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 59

Alamouti scheme with arbitrary number of receive antennas

A system with two transmit antennas and an arbitrary number of receive
antennas [27], as the one depicted in Figure 5.1 - 3, is analyzed next. The
already explained stepsScheme
are applied to each of the receive antennas, denoting
• 2x1 Alamouti
Space-time coding
the received signal in the first and second time slot as r0 and r1 , respectively.
• STC with rate 1

(f1) (f0)
t1 t0
-1 1
s* s
2 1 2 0
Input Output
s = (s0s1) (r0r1)T

1 1
s* s
2 0 2 1

Figure 5.1 - 3: 2×NR Alamouti scheme.

Vectors h1 = [h11 , h12 , ..., h1NR ]T and h2 = [h21 , h22 , ..., h2NR ]T contain the
channel coefficients corresponding to the transmission from antenna Tx1 and
antenna Tx2 to every receive antenna, respectively.
As in the previous section, the received vector is
        
y0 r0 1 h1 h2 s0 n0
= =√ + , (5.1 - 14)
y1 r∗1 ∗
2 h2 −h1
∗
s1 n∗1

where n0 and n1 are noise vectors, corresponding to the noise added in

each receive branch.
Following the same steps as in the 2 × 1 Alamouti scheme, the estimation
of the transmitted symbols at the receiver is performed in Equation 5.1 - 15.
Since the power gain of the channel is, in this case, h2 = kh1 k2 + kh2 k2 ,
it is possible to achieve a diversity order of 2NR . The whole description
of this formula for a 2 × 2 Alamouti scheme is further explained in section
Section B.2.2.
1
s = Hν H y = √ h2 s + HH
b νne (5.1 - 15)
2
 (f1) (f0)
t1 t0
h1
-s1* s0 noise
CHAPTER
Input 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION Output 60
s = (s0s1) r = (r0r1)
STC Receiver
For a system withs0two
* sreceive
1 antennas,
h2
Rx1 and Rx2, and according
to the above equations, the received signals would be r0 = [r0 (1)r0 (2)]T and
r1 = [r1 (1)r1 (2)]T , where r0 (1) is the symbol received in antenna Rx1 at time
slot t0 , and r1 (1), the symbol received at time slot t1 . In the same way, r0 (2)
and r1 (2) are the symbols received in antenna Rx2 during the two time slots.
Therefore, the signal that is received at the end is y = [r0 r∗1 ]T :
     
  r0 (1) h11 h21  h1  n0 (1)
r0  = √1  h12
 r0 (2)  h22 
 s0 +  n0∗ (2)
  
= noise . Output
∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ 
r1
Input  r1 (1)  2  h21 −h11 s1  n1 (1)  r=
s = (s0s1) r∗1 (2) h∗22 −h12 n∗1 (2) (r0r1)
STC (5.1 - 16)Receiver
In this case the power gain of the channel is h2 h= kh1 k22 + kh2 k22 and a
2
diversity order of 4 is achieved.

5.1.3 Maximum Ratio Combining

h1*
n0

s1·h1 s1·|h1|2+n0h1*
h1

s1 s1h2+n0h1*+n1h2*
n1
h2

s1·h2 s1·|h2|2+n1h2*

h2*

Figure 5.1 - 4: A system using two antennas in reception.

Maximum ratio combining (MRC) [26] is a special form of diversity where

multiple replicas of the same signal, received over different diversity branches,
are combined in order to maximize the instantaneous SNR at the combiner
output. Before summing the signals of every receive branch the symbols on
all receive antennas are weighted. The weight factor corresponds with the
complex conjugated channel coefficient of each receive branch.
The signal received on each antenna is given by

yi = hi s + ni , i = 1, 2, · · · , NR , (5.1 - 17)
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 61

where hi and ni are the channel coefficients and the noise experienced by
antenna i, respectively, s is the transmitted signal, and NR is the number of
receive antennas. Moreover, it is considered that the antennas are sufficiently
spaced from each other and the channel coefficients, affected by fading, can
be assumed to be independent.
The weighted combination for the input antennas to be taken into account
is expressed as follows:
NR
X NR
X NR
X
y= βi yi = s βi hi + βi ni . (5.1 - 18)
i=1 i=1 i=1

From this combination, the SNR of the channel is given by

E|s N 2
| N βi hi |2
P R P R
i=1 βi hi |
SNR(h1 , h2 , · · · , hNR ) = PNR = Pi=1
NR
. (5.1 - 19)
E| i=1 βi ni |2 i=1 |βi |
2

Applying the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality, it is straightforward to verify

that βi = h∗i maximizes the SNR. Replacing this value in Equation 5.1 - 19,
the maximal SNR yields
NR
X
SNR(h1 , · · · , hNR ) = SNR |hi |2 . (5.1 - 20)
i=1

The process described above is shown in Figure 5.1 - 4, where an example

of a receiver with dual antenna diversity is depicted. The signal is sent over
a channel with transmission coefficients h1 and h2 , and reaches both receive
antennas with some added noise. Then, the process consists of multiplying
the signal in each receive branch by the corresponding conjugated channel
coefficient, and at the end, the signals from both branches are summed.
It can be appreciated that the received signal is very similar to the one
obtained with the Alamouti scheme in Equation 5.1 - 13, as the same gain
in the signal is achieved, as well as some modified noise. However, better
performance is obtained with this scheme as only one symbol is transmitted
in one time interval and the unity average transmit power is already achieved
in √
each interval. Therefore, the resultant signal is not multiplied by the factor
1/ 2 as in the Alamouti scheme, and consequently, a gain of 3 dB in power
is obtained.

5.2 MIMO implementation

This section describes the implementation of the mentioned MIMO in the
simulator, thus explaining in detail the respective changes to be performed
in both transmitter and receiver.
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 62

5.2.1 Transmitter

Pilot
from to
Encoder Add Zeros
Mapper STC Assembler

Training0

Training1

Figure 5.2 - 1: MIMO transmitter in the WiMAX system.

Reed
Convolutional
Solomon
The main aspects to be takenPuncture Interleaver
into account when implementing the MIMO
Encoder
Encoder
transmitter are focused on applying the STC algorithms in both OFDM
symbols and pilot subcarriers, as well as in the assembling process, as two
long training sequences are used now.

STC block
This block performs the Alamouti algorithm described in Equation 5.1 - 11.
As explained, the basic Alamouti scheme transmits two complex symbols,
s0 and s1 , using the multiple-input single-output channel twice with channel
vector values h1 and h2 . During the first channel use antenna Tx1 transmits
s0 , and antenna Tx2, s1 . In the following channel use, symbols −s∗1 and s∗0
are transmitted from Tx1 and Tx2 respectively.

Pilot symbols
On a given pilot subcarrier, the same pilot symbol is used for the STC block.
The pilot symbol for pilot subcarrier "s" obtained after it has been 2-PAM
modulated is ps , and the OFDM symbols that enter into the STC block are
symbols "k" and "k+1". The standard [4] specifies that the modulation on
pilot subcarrier "s" during the transmission of symbol "k" shall be ps on both
transmit antennas. Nevertheless, during symbol "k+1", the modulation on
the pilot subcarrier shall be −ps for antenna 1, and ps for antenna 2.

Antenna 1 Antenna2
symbol k pilot ps pilot ps
symbol k + 1 pilot −ps pilot ps
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 63

Preambles
Two long training sequences are needed when using the MIMO transmission.
As explained in Section 2.5, preambles for DL transmissions are composed of
three consecutive OFDM symbols. The first one, set according to the short
training PSHORT , is used for synchronization. The second symbol uses a long
training sequence, necessary in the receiver for channel estimation. The first
antenna transmits the sequence PEVEN as long training sequence, and the
second antenna transmits the sequence PODD . As in the SISO case, the last
symbol of the preamble is the FCH.
The following expressions describe the idea already explained:

Antenna 1 = PSHORT + PEVEN + FCH,

Antenna 2 = PSHORT + PODD + FCH.

Assembler

frequency

S0 = (s0,1 s0,2 s0,3 … s0,n-1 s0,n) S1 = (s1,1 s1,2 s1,3 … s1,n-1 s1,n)
t0 ... ...

-
t1 ... ...
-S1* = (-s1,1* -s1,2* -s1,3* … -s1,n-1* -s1,n*) S0* = (s0,1* s0,2* s0,3* … s0,n-1* s0,n*)

S2 S3
t2 ... ...

-S3* S2*
t3 ... ...

symbol pilot subcarrier modulated data

time
pilot subcarrier modulated data

Figure 5.2 - 2: STC usage with OFDM.

The assembling process for the MIMO system is very similar to the SISO
transmission explained in Section 2.6.
For a better understanding, the STC usage with the OFDM symbols is
illustrated in Figure 5.2 - 2. During the first time step, symbols S0 and S1 are
sent simultaneously from antenna 1 and antenna 2, respectively. Following
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 64

the Alamouti algorithm, the OFDM symbols −S1∗ and S0∗ are sent in the next
time step. The same operations are performed for the next time intervals,
thus the symbol pair (S2 , S3 ) is sent during the time steps t2 and t3 , and so
on.
On the other hand, the pilot symbols are inserted between the OFDM
symbols as previously explained. Antenna 1 transmits ps and −ps in time
steps t0 and t1 , respectively. However, only ps is transmitted from antenna
2 during both time intervals.

5.2.2 Receiver
At the receiver only the blocks described in the following have to be changed
to allow detection of Alamouti coded signals.

Disassembler
When implementing the MIMO disassembler it has to be taken into account
that, although from different antennas, two OFDM symbols are transmitted
in each time interval. Each OFDM symbol is processed as a matrix, where
each row represents a subcarrier. In this way, 3D-matrices would be needed
in order to also specify, in this case, the antenna from where the OFDM is
being transmitted in each time step. However, Simulink does not support
3D-matrices, and therefore, these OFDM symbols of different antennas are
processed consecutively.
The mentioned disassembling process separates first the two transmitted
OFDM symbols, and next, performs the separation of training sequences,
pilot subcarriers, and DC subcarrier from the original data subcarriers, as
explained in Section 4.3.

Channel estimator
The estimated channel coefficients are calculated for each receive antenna as
explained in Section 4.4. Moreover, two long training sequences, PEVEN and
PODD , are used when applying MIMO transmissions, and so, both have to be
considered for the channel estimation. If only one transmit antenna exists,
the channel estimation is performed using the sequence PEVEN . However,
when the two transmit antennas are being used, the second antenna will
estimate its channel coefficients with PODD . This is possible because PEVEN
CHAPTER 5. MIMO TRANSMISSION 65

uses only even subcarriers and PODD only odd subcarriers, making the OFDM
symbols PEVEN and PODD orthogonal.

Demapper
The aim of the demapper is determining the symbol that was transmitted.
With this purpose, decision metric algorithms are developed. Both hard
demapping and soft demapping are implemented as described in Section 4.5.
However, the estimate of the received signal has to be calculated first, and
depending on the diversity scheme, this calculation is performed in a different
way.
When a scheme with two transmit antennas and only one receive antenna
is being used, the receive estimates are calculated from Equation 5.1 - 13:
1
sb = √ h2 s + HH
νne.
2
On the other hand, when there is one transmit antenna and two receive
antennas, the estimate of the received signal is obtained following the MRC
formula:
sb = s1 h2 + n0 h∗1 + n1 h∗2 ,
where h2 = |h1 |2 + |h2 |2 .
Finally, when two antennas at both ends of the communication system
are used, the estimation is performed as in Equation 5.1 - 15:
1
sb = √ h2 s + HH
νne.
2

In this case, the channel gain is h2 = kh1 k2 + kh2 k2 .

Chapter 6

Adaptive Modulation and Coding

The growing demand of all types of services, not only voice and data but
also multimedia services, aims for the design of increasingly more intelligent
and agile communication systems, capable of providing spectrally efficient
and flexible data rate access. These systems are able to adapt and adjust the
transmission parameters based on the link quality, improving the spectrum
efficiency of the system, and reaching, in this way, the capacity limits of the
underlying wireless channel. Link adaptation techniques, often referred to
as adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), are a good way for reaching the
cited requirements. They are designed to track the channel variations, thus
changing the modulation and coding scheme to yield a higher throughput by
transmitting with high information rates under favorable channel conditions
and reducing the information rate in response to channel degradation.
This chapter is focused on the implementation of such techniques. A
theoretical explanation, necessary to understand the operation principles of
adaptive modulation and coding, is briefly given. Also a performance analysis
of the AMC scheme implemented in the simulator is furthermore presented
in this chapter.

6.1 Theory on the AMC technique

6.1.1 Introduction to adaptive transmission mechanisms
Since the available radio spectrum for wireless communications is extremely
scarce, there is a rapid growth in the demand of services for portable and
wireless devices, and, as these services become more and more complex, the
use of spectrally efficient transmission schemes supporting higher information
rates is needed.

66
CHAPTER 6. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING 67

In traditional communication systems, the transmission is designed for a

"worst case" channel scenario thus coping with the channel variations and
still delivering an error rate below a specific limit. Adaptive transmission
schemes, however, are designed to track the channel quality by adapting
the channel throughput to the actual channel state. These techniques take
advantage of the time-varying nature of the wireless channel to vary the
transmitted power level, symbol rate, coding scheme, constellation size, or
any combination of these parameters, with the purpose of improving the link
average spectral efficiency, i.e. the number of information bits transmitted
per second per Hz bandwidth used.
Adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) is a promising tool for increasing
the spectral efficiency of time-varying wireless channels while maintaining a
predictable BER [28]. In AMC, not only the modulation order but also
the FEC scheme are varied by adjusting their code rate to the variations
in the communication channel. For example, in periods of high fade when
the channel is in a poor state, i.e. low SNR, the signal constellation size
is reduced in order to improve fidelity, lowing the effective SNR to make
transmission more robust. Conversely, in periods of low fade or high gain
(high SNR), the signal constellation size is increased in order to allow higher
data rate modulation schemes to be employed with low probability of error,
thus improving the instantaneous SNR. An example of utilization of the
cited AMC scheme is illustrated in Figure 6.1 - 1. It shows that as the range
increases, the system steps down to a lower modulation, but as closer to the
base station, higher order modulations can be used for increased throughput.

4-QAM 64-QAM

2-PAM 16-QAM

Figure 6.1 - 1: Scheme for the utilization of AMC.

CHAPTER 6. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING 68

6.1.2 Performance of the AMC scheme

A good performance of AMC schemes requires accurate channel estimation
at the receiver and a reliable feedback path between that estimator and the
transmitter on which the receiver reports channel state information (CSI) to
the transmitter. In order to perform a good implementation the next steps
must be followed:

Channel quality estimation

The transmitter requires an estimate of the expected channel conditions for
the next transmission interval. Since this knowledge can only be gained
by prediction from past channel quality estimations, the adaptive system
can only operate efficiently in an environment with relatively slowly-varying
channel conditions [29]. Therefore, the delay between the quality estimation
and the actual transmission in relation to the maximal Doppler frequency
of the channel is crucial for the system implementation since poor system
performance will result if the channel estimate is obsolete at the time of
transmission.
Although there are different ways to estimate the channel quality, the
AMC scheme explained in this section is related with the measurement of the
SNR, as it is often used in many systems as the channel quality information.

Parameter adaptation
The choice of the appropriate modulation and coding mode to be used in the
next transmission is made by the transmitter, based on the prediction of the
channel conditions for the next time interval. An SNR threshold such that
it guarantees a BER below the target BER, BER0 , is defined by the system
for each scheme whenever the SNR is above the SNR threshold.
The SNR thresholds are obtained from the BER vs. SNR characteristics
of a modulation mode on an AWGN channel. As outlined in Figure 6.1 - 2,
the method consists on splitting the SNR range into N + 1 SNR regions by
N + 2 SNR thresholds, {γ}N +1
n=0 , with γ0 = 0 and γN +1 = ∞.
Each of the N schemes is then assigned to operate within a particular
SNR region. When the SNR γ falls within the SNR region γn ≤ γ ≤ γn+1 ,
the associated channel state information is sent back to the transmitter. The
transmitter then adapts its transmission rate and coding and modulation
schemes by transmitting with a modulation scheme such that it guarantees
a BER below BER0 . This enables the system to transmit with high spectral
efficiency when the SNR is high, and to reduce the spectral efficiency as the
SNR decreases.
CHAPTER 6. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING 69

0
10
2-PAM
4-QAM
-1
10 16-QAM
64-QAM

-2
10

BER0
BER

-3
10
γ1 γ2 γ3 γ4
-4
10

-5
10

-6
10
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
SNR(dB)

Figure 6.1 - 2: BER vs. SNR relationship and corresponding SNR thresholds
for N coding and modulation schemes employed by AMC.

Feedback mechanism
Once the receiver has estimated the channel SNR, converted it into BER
information for each mode candidate, and, based on a target BER, selected
the mode that yields the largest throughput while remaining within the BER
target bounds, it has to feed back the selected mode to the transmitter in
order that the adaptation can be performed.
However, the challenge associated with adaptive modulation and coding
is that the mobile channel is time-varying, and thus, the feedback of the
channel information becomes a limiting factor. Therefore, the assumption of
a slowly-varying as well as a reliable feedback channel is necessary in order to
achieve an accurate performance of the AMC scheme. In this way, no delay or
transmission error can occur in the feedback channel so that no discrepancy
between the predicted and the actual SNR of the next frame appears.
Moreover, the receiver must also be informed of which demodulator and
decoding parameters to employ for the next received packet.

6.2 AMC implementation

This section explains the implementation of the cited adaptive modulation
and coding scheme. A few differences between this simulator version and
the last one that was mentioned when implementing the MIMO system are
encountered. On one hand, besides the channel coefficients, the channel
CHAPTER 6. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING 70
Transmitter

estimator also estimates the corresponding SNR. On the other hand, a new
block is introduced with the aim of deciding the modulation and coding
mode to be switched at the transmitter. Furthermore, as appreciated in
Figure 6.2 - 1, not only the encoder and mapper in the transmit side but also
the decoder and demapper in the receiver are grouped into a unique block,
which implementation and function will be later discussed.

from channel coefficients Output

data symbols
Disassembler Channel Decoder & bits
from Disassembler
Estimator Demapper
SNR
AMC
to
Encoder & Assembler
Mapper

Figure 6.2 - 1: AMC mechanism in the WiMAX system.

6.2.1 SNR estimation

The calculation of the SNR is performed in the channel estimator. As well
known, the SNR is obtained from dividing the signal power between the noise
power. Thus, the instantaneous SNR for each frame is calculated as
s
SNR = ,
n
where s and n are the average signal and noise power, respectively, in each
frame. While the signal power is obtained from the channel coefficients, the
noise power is calculated from the noise variance, σν2 .
As stated in Section 2.5, the long training sequences are an interpolated
version of the sequence PALL , where either PEVEN or PODD use a subset
of even or odd subcarriers, respectively, while keeping null the remaining
subset. However, the training symbols are received with some additive noise,
and thus, the previous null carriers have now a non-zero value. The noise is
calculated from these carriers.
Furthermore, as it happened with the channel estimation, it has to be
taken into account whether the system uses one or two transmit antennas.
When only one transmit antenna is used the noise is obtained from PEVEN .
If the system has two transmit antennas, both PEVEN and PODD are used
instead.
CHAPTER 6. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING 71

6.2.2 The AMC block

This block deals with the task of finding the decision thresholds, deciding
which of the modulation and coding schemes shown in Table 2.2 - 1 may be
employed in the next frame transmission, and feeding back this information
not only to the transmitter but also to the receiver.
As explained before, the SNR thresholds are calculated from the BER vs.
SNR curves. The curves depicted in Figure 6.2 - 2 have been obtained from
simulations performed with a perfect knowledge of the channel coefficients in
an AWGN scenario. The figure shows seven curves corresponding to the seven
different modulation and coding schemes allowed by the WiMAX system,
defined from AMC1 to AMC7. The set of adaptation/switching thresholds
is obtained by reading the SNR points corresponding to a target BER.
C1

C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6
C7
AM

AM

AM

AM

AM

AM

AM
AM
0
10
AMC1
AMC2
AMC3
AMC4
AMC5
-1
AMC6
Coded BER

10 AMC7

Target BER

-2
10

-5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 6.2 - 2: BER vs. SNR curves.

The implementation of this method is performed in a Matlab file. The

obtained coded BER values for a given SNR, for each of the different AMC
schemes, are programmed. According to a target BER specified by the user
a selection function calculates the SNR thresholds, and the AMC scheme
to use in the next frame is decided by comparing these thresholds with the
estimated SNR of the channel.
CHAPTER 6. ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND CODING 72

6.2.3 Coding and decoding

Both transmitter and receiver have to be informed about which AMC scheme
to employ in the next transmission frame. An encoder and mapper in which
the parameters to be used were specified by the user were performed in the
simulator without the adaptive modulation and coding mechanism. However,
a bank of seven encoders and mappers, each one with a fixed AMC scheme,
is now set up so that the transmitter can switch from one AMC scheme to
another based on the feedback information. The same operation is performed
at the receiver, where instead of only a demapper and a decoder, a bank with
seven demappers and decoders is also implemented.
Chapter 7

Simulation results

In this chapter, simulation results will be presented along with the underlying
assumptions. The goal is to evaluate the performance of the simulator as well
as to obtain a more accurate understanding of the operation of the WiMAX
system. Through numerous comparisons between simulation results obtained
with different simulation parameters, some discussions about the use of these
different parameters and options are given with the purpose of offering a
complete view on the better manner of performance of the transmission.
Thus, not only the two demapping methods but also the impact of the channel
estimation are analyzed. Furthermore, the transmission gain obtained when
using multiple antennas instead of only a single antenna at one or both ends
of the transmission link is also examined. The different channel models and
scenarios are applied in different simulations so that the fading phenomenon
can be studied. To end, results when activating the AMC mechanism are
offered, thus showing the mentioned increase in spectral efficiency and data
throughput.

7.1 A single antenna transmission

This section shows simulation results when using a single antenna not only
at the transmitter but also at the receiver. The common assumptions to
most of the simulations are as follows: the simulation is carried out for
downlink transmissions at a carrier frequency of 2 GHz and a 20 MHz channel
bandwidth. The length of the cyclic prefix is defined by G = 1/32 and the
frame duration is specified to be 2.5 msec. Thus, only changes performed on
these assumptions will be mentioned from now on.

73
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 74

7.1.1 Modulation schemes and coding rates

This section gives a comparison between the different modulation schemes
and coding rates used in the simulator. These results have been obtained
in an AWGN channel, with a system using least-squares channel estimation
and hard demapping.
The simulated performance for different modulation schemes and coding
rates tested is shown in Figure 7.1 - 1 and Figure 7.1 - 2. As specified in
the standard, WiMAX allows for seven different combinations of modulation
order and coding rates, which are briefly summarized next.

AMC Mode Modulation scheme Overall coding rate

AMC1 2-PAM 1/2
AMC2 4-QAM 1/2
AMC3 4-QAM 3/4
AMC4 16-QAM 1/2
AMC5 16-QAM 3/4
AMC6 64-QAM 2/3
AMC7 64-QAM 3/4

Table 7.1 - 1: Modulation schemes and coding rates.

0
10

−1
10
Uncoded BER

−2
10

−3
10 2−PAM
4−QAM
16−QAM
64−QAM
−4
10
−20 −15 −10 −5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 7.1 - 1: Comparison between modulation schemes in the uncoded BER.

The curves show the BER as a function of the bit energy to noise rate
(Eb /N0 ), which is a measure of the energy efficiency of a modulation scheme.
If a higher Eb /N0 is needed to transfer data for a given modulation scheme,
it means that more energy is required for each bit transfer. Low spectral
efficiency modulation schemes, such as 2-PAM and 4-QAM, require a lower
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 75

Eb /N0 , and hence, are more energy efficient and less vulnerable to bit errors.
Furthermore, the BER versus the SNR can be calculated from Eb /N0 . The
SNR for each modulation takes into account the number of bits per symbol,
and so, the signal power corresponds to the energy per bit times the number
of bits per symbol.
0
10
AMC1
AMC2
AMC3
AMC4
AMC5
AMC6
Coded BER

−1
10 AMC7

−2
10

−5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 7.1 - 2: Comparison between different modulation chemes and coding

rates in the coded BER.

As we can see, a comparison between the different modulation schemes

is performed. The dashed black curves in Figure 7.1 - 1 represent the AWGN
theoretical BER curves. They have been calculated from the probability of
bit error expressions as follows [30]:
  r !
1 3 Eb
Pbc = 2 1 − √ Q , (7.1 - 1)
Ma Ma − 1 N0

where Pbc is the probability of bit error per carrier, Ma defines the modulation
alphabet, and Q(x) is related
 2  to the complementary
  Gaussian error function
1
R∞ −x 1 x
by Q(x) = √2π x exp 2 dx = 2 erfc √2 , which is the probability that
a Gaussian distributed variable x0 is larger than x.
Therefore, the probability of bit error is calculated as

Pb = 1 − (1 − Pbc )2 . (7.1 - 2)

Note that the theoretical curves experiment a small shift if compared

with those simulated. This shift can be calculated analytically and is a loss
200 33


in the SNR of the system: SNRloss = 10 log10 192 32
= 0.3dB. It expresses
the mentioned shift, where 200/192 is the ratio of the number of non-zero
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 76

subcarriers (data and pilots) to the data subcarriers, and 33/32 represents
the relationship between the data symbol with and without adding the cyclic
prefix, which, in this case, is defined by G = 1/32.
A comparison between all different modulation schemes and coding rates
is given in Figure 7.1 - 2, where the coded BER vs. SNR curves have been
plotted. It can be noticed that the higher the code rate, the more the curves
are shifted to the right, and as it has been discussed for the uncoded BER
curves, the higher the modulation scheme, the higher the bit error rate.

7.1.2 Types of channel fading

The different channel fading and the effects of the velocity of the user are
discussed in the current section. As mentioned through the thesis, three
kinds of channel fading are implemented in the simulator, block fading, time-
variant fading, and time-variant block fading channel. As expected, the time-
variant channel experiments the worse results as a consequence of the varying
channel coefficients. In order to improve the performance of this time-variant
channel, a time-variant channel estimator could be implemented. The block
fading channel, which has no variation of its channel coefficients through the
whole process of transmission, is the one that obtains better results instead.
These observations, which regard to the different fading types, are shown
in Figure 7.1 - 3, where the parameters are set to be AMC3, perfect channel
knowledge, hard demapping, and a user velocity of 3 km/h.

Block fading
TV block fading
TV fading
−1
10
Coded BER

−2
10

−3
10

−4
10
−5 0 5 10 15 20
Channel SNR 100 [dB]

Figure 7.1 - 3: Comparison between different types of fading.

Also discussed in this section is the velocity of the user terminal, analyzed
next. With this purpose, the following graphics show the performance of the
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 77

system not only for the uncoded BER curves, but also for the coded BER
curves, when passing the signal through a time-variant channel, in scenario F.
The parameters used in this simulations are soft demapping, perfect channel
knowledge, and AMC3.

0 0
10 10
v=0 km/h v=0 km/h
v=30 km/h v=30 km/h
v=100 km/h −1 v=100 km/h
10

−1
10
Uncoded BER

−2

Coded BER
10

−3
10
−2
10

−4
10

−3 −5
10 10
−5 0 5 10 15 20 −5 0 5 10 15 20
Channel SNR [dB] Channel SNR [dB]

(a) (b)

Figure 7.1 - 4: BER vs. SNR curves in a time-variant channel for scenario F.

Figure 7.1 - 4 depicts results obtained for a time-variant channel. It is

shown that while the velocity of the user is not an important factor when
computing the uncoded BER curve, it plays an essential role in the coded
BER curve, where, as expected, the lower the velocity the better the results.

7.1.3 Demapping and channel estimation

This section compares hard and soft demapping. More specifically, the max-
log-MAP algorithm implemented for the soft demapping is analyzed. The
first results compare the demapping and the channel estimation methods for
an AWGN channel using a 4-QAM modulation format, and an overall coding
rate of 1/2 (AMC2).
Figure 7.1 - 5 shows the BER performance for both hard and soft (max-
log-MAP) demapping. It is a plot of the coded BER vs. SNR curves where
a perfect knowledge of the channel coefficients has been assumed. The figure
shows that soft demapping outperforms hard demapping in approximately
2 dB in SNR. In the same way, a comparison between channel estimation
and a perfect knowledge of the channel coefficients is made. In this case,
hard demapping has been used at the receiver. As expected, better results
are obtained with the knowledge of the channel coefficients. However, when
removing the assumption of ideal channel knowledge it is noticed that the
performance curves become 1 dB more degraded in SNR. Therefore, in an
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 78

0
10 0
10
Hard demapping
Soft demapping
Perfect channel
LS estimation

−1
10 −1
10
Coded BER

Coded BER
−2
10 −2
10

−3
10 −3
−3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 10
−3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Channel SNR [dB]
Channel SNR [dB]

(a) Hard demapping vs. soft demapping. (b) Perfect channel knowledge vs. least-
squares channel estimation.

Figure 7.1 - 5: Demapping and channel estimation in an AWGN channel.

implementation more effort should be spent on implementing a soft demapper

than a better channel estimator.
0
10

−1
10
Coded BER

−2
10

Soft & Perfect

Hard & LSE
Soft & LSE
Hard & Perfect
−3
10
−3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 7.1 - 6: Comparison between hard and soft demapping and channel
estimation in an AWGN channel.

These four possible combinations of demapping and channel estimation

are plotted in Figure 7.1 - 6. As mentioned, 2 dB of gain are obtained when
using soft demapping instead of hard demapping. On the other hand, there
is 1 dB of loss in the SNR when channel estimation is applied. Therefore, it
can be deducted that the scheme using the soft demapping algorithm and a
perfect knowledge of the channel will outperform that with hard demapping
and least-squares channel estimation in approximately 3 dB in SNR. In the
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 79

same way, if soft demapping is combined with LSE1 , the gain obtained with
the soft demapping is damaged by the application of the least-squares channel
estimation, and only 1 dB of gain in SNR is achieved.
In addition to this, both demapping and channel estimation is analyzed
for the block fading channel. As in the AWGN channel, the comparison
between the demapping methods is performed with a perfect knowledge of
the channel, and the one for channel estimation, using hard demapping.
The following figures analyze not only both demapping methods but also
the channel estimation results in scenario F. They show that the gain obtain
with soft demapping increases as the SNR increases. The same occurs with
the gain obtained when using perfect channel knowledge instead of least-
squares channel estimation. Therefore, the receiver is able to better utilize
the diversity of the frequency-selective channel.

0 0
10 10
Hard demapping Perfect channel
Soft demapping LS estimation

−1
10
Coded BER
Coded BER

−1
10

−2
10

−3 −2
10 10
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB] Channel SNR [dB]

(a) Hard demapping vs. soft demapping. (b) Perfect channel knowledge vs. least-
squares channel estimation.

Figure 7.1 - 7: Demapping and channel estimation in a block fading channel.

1
Least-Squares Estimation
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 80

7.1.4 AMC and its effects in the results

This sections discusses the consequences caused in the results when applying
the AMC mechanism. Several aspects, including the type of channel, the
velocity of the user, or the channel estimation, are analyzed with this purpose,
thus letting us notice the enhancement AMC offers.

0
10
70
Without AMC
With AMC Without AMC
With AMC
60

−1
10

Throughput [Mbps]
50
Coded BER

40

−2
10
30

20

−3
10
−5 0 5 10 15 20 25 10
−5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB]
Channel SNR [dB]

(a) Coded BER vs. SNR curves. (b) Throughput vs. SNR curves.

Figure 7.1 - 8: Comparison between results obtained with and without using
the AMC scheme.

To begin with, a comparison between results with and without using

the mentioned AMC scheme is performed. Figure 7.1 - 8 depicts the coded
BER and the throughput curves for scenario A in a block fading channel.
The setting parameters are hard demapping, perfect channel knowledge, and
AMC3. The results show an enormous increase in the throughput when using
the AMC mechanism from approximately 7 dB of channel SNR onwards. On
the other hand, the prize for this enhancement is, as previously explained,
the support of a predictable BER, which maintains small variations around
a fixed value.
Furthermore, the selection of the AMC mode is made in such a way that
it guarantees a BER below a given target BER. With our operating point at
a target BER of 10−1 , we have the ranges specified in Table 7.1 - 2 for each
AMC scheme. We came to these levels in the following way: at an operating
BER of 10−1 , there is no AMC scheme that gives us our desired performance
at an SNR below -1 dB. Therefore, we choose AMC1 as it is the most robust.
Between -1 and 3 dB, there is only one scheme that gives us our desired
performance below 10−1 , and that is AMC1. Between 3 and 6 dB, AMC2
gives us our desired BER. Between 6 and 9 dB the AMC scheme giving the
desired BER performance at a better spectral efficiency is AMC3. Likewise,
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 81

as the channel SNR is higher, higher AMC schemes are used to give us the
best spectral efficiency while providing the desired BER performance.

Target BER=10−1 Target BER=10−2

AMC1 SNR<-1 dB SNR<0 dB
AMC1 -1 dB<SNR<3 dB 0 dB<SNR<5 dB
AMC2 3 dB<SNR<6 dB 5 dB<SNR<7 dB
AMC3 6 dB<SNR<9 dB 7 dB<SNR<11 dB
AMC4 9 dB<SNR<12 dB 11 dB<SNR<13 dB
AMC5 12 dB<SNR<16 dB 13 dB<SNR<18 dB
AMC6 16 dB<SNR<18 dB 18 dB<SNR<19 dB
AMC7 SNR>18dB SNR>19dB

Table 7.1 - 2: AMC scheme to SNR range.

In the same way, the chart shows the SNR ranges for a given target BER
of 10−2 . In this case the SNR thresholds are shifted to the right (higher
SNR) due to decreasing nature of the BER curves with the SNR. Therefore,
as Figure 7.1 - 9 shows, if the target BER is higher, the performance of the
system will be worse as worse channel quality conditions (higher target BER
to guarantee a BER below it) are required. However, it can be seen that
the target BER is not achieved. The channel fading is so fast (low temporal
correlation and short coherence time) that the SNR varies too much during
the transmission of each codeword, and therefore, more effort should be spent
on optimizing the AMC mechanism.
0
10
Target BER=1e−1
Target BER=1e−2
Coded BER

−1
10

−2
10
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 7.1 - 9: The influence of the target BER in the AMC mechanism.
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 82

Another aspect to take into account is the velocity of the user. Since
the channel conditions change more rapidly when the user moves faster, the
AMC mechanism needs to shift from one mode to another more often to
follow the variations of the channel. On the other hand, the feedback of the
channel information to the transmitter becomes a limiting factor as while
it is being performed, the channel conditions change continuously. Thus it
can be thought, as Figure 7.1 - 10 shows, that better results are obtained if
the velocity of the user is smaller. The setting parameters for this curves
are time-variant block fading channel, scenario B, soft demapping, and least-
squares channel estimation.

0 80
10
v=3 km/h v=3 km/h
v =100 km/h 70 v=100 km/h

60
Throughput [Mbps]

−1
10
Coded BER

50

40

−2
10
30

20

−3 10
10 −10 −5 0 5 10 15 20 25
−10 −5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB] Channel SNR [dB]

(a) Coded BER vs. SNR curves. (b) Throughput vs. SNR curves.

Figure 7.1 - 10: AMC results for a time-variant block fading channel with
different user velocities.

Additionally, both demapping and channel estimation are analyzed with

the performance of the AMC scheme. As expected, better results have been
obtained for soft demapping and a perfect channel knowledge instead of hard
demapping and channel estimation, respectively. Results for scenario C in a
block fading channel using AMC3 are shown in Figure 7.1 - 11. The curves
comparing hard demapping and soft demapping have been obtained with
least-squares channel estimation, and those comparing channel estimation
and perfect channel knowledge, with soft demapping.
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 83

0
10 0
10
Soft demapping Perfect channel
Hard demapping LS estimation
Coded BER

Coded BER
−1
10 −1
10

−2
10 −2
−5 0 5 10 15 20 25 10
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Channel SNR [dB] Channel SNR [dB]

(a) Comparison between hard and soft (b) Comparison between perfect channel
demapping. knowledge and channel estimation.

Figure 7.1 - 11: Demapping and channel estimation when using the AMC
scheme.

7.2 Multiple antenna transmission

Results obtained when using more than one antenna either at the transmitter
or at the receiver, or at both ends of the communication link, are discussed in
this section. As in the results for only one antenna, the common assumptions
to all of the simulations are:

• fc =2 GHz

• BW =20 MHz

• G=1/32

• Tframe =2.5 msec

• AMC=3

Furthermore, the hard demapping algorithm, a perfect knowledge of the

channel coefficients, and a block fading channel model are used.

7.2.1 SISO, SIMO, MISO, and MIMO systems

As mentioned in Chapter 5, wireless channels key problem is fading. In order
to combat this fading and hence, improve the capacity and the throughput
of the system, multiple antennas at both ends of the communication link are
used. This section analyzes the enhancement achieved with such structures,
making a comparison of the performance of not only systems with multiple
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 84

transmit but also multiple receive antennas. As Figure 7.2 - 1 illustrates,

the performance of the system drastically improves with a diversity system
in place, in this case, using scenario C. The slope of the BER curves is an
indicator of the degree of diversity that has been achieved. The degree of
diversity is defined as the performance improvement in BER, in terms of
power of ten, for a 10 dB higher SNR. As can be observed, the curve for the
1 × 1 system improves its error probability with a factor 10, i.e. power of
1 for a 10 dB rise in SNR. In this case, the degree of diversity is said to be
equal to one, i.e. no diversity at all. However, when simulating with a 1 × 2
or a 2 × 1 system, which have diversity order of two, better performance is
achieved. Likewise, the degree of diversity achieved with the 2 × 2 system
is of order four. Therefore, it can be concluded that the degree of diversity
is equal to NT NR , being NT and NR the number of transmit and receive
antennas, respectively. Furthermore, it is shown that although both 1 × 2
and 2 × 1 achieve the same degree of diversity, the scheme that uses multiple
antennas at the receiver offers a significant improvement of 3 dB of gain
in the channel SNR. This gain is deducted from the formula of the received
signal when using the MRC and the Alamouti scheme. As only one symbol is
transmitted in one time interval with the MRC algorithm, the unity average
transmit power is already achieved in each√ time interval, and the resultant
signal is not multiplied by the factor 1/ 2 as in the Alamouti algorithm.

0
10
1x1
2x1
1x2
2x2
Diversity 1
−1
10
Coded BER

−2
Diversity 4 Diversity 2
10

Diversity 2

−3
10
−5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 7.2 - 1: Comparison between different degrees of diversity.

The throughput of the system is analyzed next. Figure 7.2 - 2 illustrates

that the higher the diversity order the more improvement in throughput is
achieved.
CHAPTER 7. SIMULATION RESULTS 85

28

26

Trhoughput [Mbps]
24

22

20

1x1
18 1x2
2x1
2x2
16
−5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 7.2 - 2: Throughput of the system using diversity schemes.

7.2.2 Channel model scenarios

This section analyzes the performance of the system when using the different
I-METRA [31] scenarios implemented in the simulator. Simulation results
for scenarios U, A and F, in a 2 × 2 MIMO system are presented. The
results show that although both scenarios, A and U, represent environments
experiencing flat fading, scenario A is worse than scenario U, thus showing
that better performance is achieved in a non-correlated flat fading channel
(scenario U) than in a correlated (scenario A). On the other hand, the best
results are obtained with scenario F due to the higher frequency diversity
this channel model has.
0
10
Scenario U
Scenario A
Scenario F
−1
10
Coded BER

−2
10

−3
10

−4
10
−5 0 5 10 15
Channel SNR [dB]

Figure 7.2 - 3: Comparison between different channel model scenarios in a

MIMO system.
Chapter 8

Conclusion

The wireless communications industry is gaining momentum in both fixed

and mobile applications. The continued increase in demand for all types of
wireless services (voice, data, and multimedia) is fueling the need for higher
capacity and data rates not only in fixed but also in mobile applications.
WLANs and 3G cellular networks are experiencing several difficulties for
reaching a complete mobile broadband access, bounded by factors such as
bandwidth, coverage area, or infrastructure costs. In this context, WiMAX
appears to fulfil these requirements, providing vehicular mobility and high
service areas and data rates. Defined to provide broadband wireless access, it
is increasingly gaining interest as an alternative last mile technology to DSL
lines and cable modems, and a complementary technology where wireless
networks are not sufficiently developed. This thesis is devoted to the study
of the WiMAX system. More specifically, it examines the implementation
of a WiMAX simulator, targeted to the 256-point FFT OFDM PHY layer,
built with Matlab Simulink. With this purpose, the different parts of the
simulator have been analyzed.
The flexible and parametrizable OFDM transmitter was explained in
Chapter 2. Specifically, the length of the cyclic prefix, the coding scheme,
the modulation alphabet, the channel bandwidth, and the frame duration,
can be freely chosen by setting appropriate parameter values.
Chapter 3 has focused on the channel implementation. Changes in the
environment due to the movement of not only objects but also receiver and
transmitter introduce time-varying fading on the communication channel.
The multipath channel propagation manifests itself by different echoes of
possibly different transmitted symbols overlapping at the receiver, which
leads to error rate degradation. The effects of ISI on the transmission error
statistics are negligible as long as the delay spread is shorter than the cyclic
prefix. The simulator implements three different kinds of channels, block

86
CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSION 87

fading, time-variant, and time-variant block fading channels. If the block

fading channel is selected for simulation, one impulse response is generated
randomly for every frame transmitted. The time-variant channel model is
implemented as a Jake’s model and a time-variant convolution of the transmit
signal with the impulse response. The time-variant block fading channel is
a combination of the block fading and the time-variant channel model with
time-invariant channel filtering. This model can be used as a low complexity
approximation for the time-variant channel model if only slow speeds are
considered.
The receiver was studied in detail in Chapter 4. Particularly, demapping
algorithms and channel estimation methods were discussed. On one hand, it
was shown that soft demapping outperforms hard demapping by 2 dB of gain
in SNR. The information given by the demapper can contain not only the
demodulated message (hard output) but also the degree of confidence in the
decision (soft output). Performing the exact calculation of the bitwise metric
in a soft demapper with a MAP algorithm is very tedious work. In order to
reduce the complexity of the MAP algorithm for LLR calculation I replaced
the mathematical logarithm function of the LLR expression with simple max
or min functions, leading to the max-log-MAP approximation. On the other
hand, the system BER with channel estimates from training sequences was
evaluated. Results showed that simple least-squares channel estimation costs
1 dB in SNR when compared with a perfect channel knowledge. Therefore,
since soft demapping gives a higher gain in the channel SNR, more efforts
should be spent on implementing a soft demapper than a better channel
estimation.
Another important aspect studied through the thesis is the performance
gain by MIMO presented in Chapter 5. The ability to transmit and receive
through multiple antennas enables us, while applying spatial diversity, to
combat fading and ultimately have substantially improved reliability and
increased capacity. The increased capacity, under proper coding, eventually
translates into increased throughput. Specifically, the concepts of maximum
ratio combining (MRC) and space-time coding (STC) were introduced. It is
necessary for simple decoding of STC systems that the channel must be slowly
varying (remain constant over two consecutive time steps). The simulator
implements MIMO up to two transmit and/or receive antennas. Simulated
results showed that the degree of diversity achieved, and hence the increase
in throughput, is proportional to the number of antennas with which the
communication system is equipped. Furthermore, it was found that a gain
of 3 dB in the channel SNR appears in the BER curves when two antennas
are used at the receiver instead of at the transmitter.
CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSION 88

A final contribution is the performance evaluation of the AMC scheme

presented in Chapter 6. AMC schemes employ multiple modulation and
coding schemes (codecs) in order to instantaneously adapt spectral efficiency
to the variations in the channel SNR while maintaining an acceptable BER.
The implemented scheme estimates the channel SNR for each frame and
compares it with a set of SNR thresholds obtained in such a way that they
guarantee a BER below a given target BER. The codec associated to each
threshold is fed back to the transmitter in order that the adaptation can
be performed. The proposed scheme has been shown to be effective from
approximately 7 dB of channel SNR onwards, where an enormous increase in
the throughput of the system is achieved with the use of the AMC scheme.
However, although a rising throughput is obtained with such schemes, the
target BER is not achieved due to the fast fading of the channel, and more
efforts should be spent on optimizing the mentioned AMC mechanism.
Appendix A

OFDM theory

OFDM can be viewed as a form of frequency division multiplexing (FDM)

with the special property that each tone is orthogonal with every other tone,
but it is different from FDM in several ways. On one hand, FDM requires,
typically, the existence of frequency guard bands between the frequencies so
that they do not interfere with each other. On the other hand, OFDM allows
the spectrum of each tone to overlap, and because they are orthogonal, they
do not interfere with each other. Furthermore, the overall amount of required
spectrum is reduced due to the overlapping of the tones.

A.1 Multicarrier modulation

In a single carrier modulation system the data is sent serially over the channel
by modulating one single carrier at a baud rate of R symbols per second,
being the data symbol period Tsym = 1/R.
The basic idea of the multicarrier modulation is, nevertheless, that the
available bandwidth, W , is divided into a number Nc of subbands, commonly
called subcarriers. As shown in Figure A.1 - 1, each one of these subcarriers
has a width of ∆f = W/Nc . Instead of transmitting the data symbols in a
serial way at a baud rate R, a multicarrier transmitter partitions the data
stream into blocks of Nc data symbols and those are transmitted in parallel
by modulating the Nc subcarriers.
The symbol duration for a multicarrier scheme is then Tsym = Nc /R.
One of the main advantages of using a multicarrier modulation is that
inter-symbol interference can be reduced when the number of subcarriers,
Nc , increases. In a multipath fading channel, ISI can appear due to the fact
that the time dispersion is significant compared with the symbol period. If a
single carrier modulation is used, a complex equalizer for compensating the

89
APPENDIX A. OFDM THEORY 90

Nc subcarriers

Δf = /Nc

...

Figure A.1 - 1: Subdivision of the bandwidth, in a multicarrier transmission,

into Nc subbands.

channel distortion is needed. However, the multicarrier modulation simplifies

the equalization into single multiplications in the frequency domain.

A.2 Orthogonality
In order to assure a high spectral efficiency the subchannel waveforms must
have overlapping transmit spectra. Nevertheless, to enable simple separation
of these overlapping subchannels at the receiver they need to be orthogonal.
Orthogonality is a property that allows the signals to be perfectly transmitted
over a common channel and detected without interference. However, loss
of orthogonality results in blurring between these information signals and
degradation in communication.
Set of functions are orthogonal to each other if they match the conditions
in Equation A.2 - 1. It means that if any two different functions within a
set are multiplied and integrated over a symbol period, the result is zero for
orthogonal functions:
Z T 
C i=j
Si (t)Sj (t)dt = (A.2 - 1)
0 0 i 6= j.
Furthermore, a general set of orthogonal waveforms is given by
(
√ 1 exp(j2πfk t) t[0, Tsym ]
ψk (t) = Tsym (A.2 - 2)
0 otherwise,
with fk = f0 + k∆f , being k = 0, 1, ..., Nc − 1.
In Equation A.2 - 2, fk represents the subcarrier frequency, and f0 is the
lowest frequency used, corresponding to the index k = 0. The inter-carrier
APPENDIX A. OFDM THEORY 91

spacing must satisfy ∆f = 1/Tsym = R/Nc , where Tsym is the symbol period
described above.
Each OFDM subcarrier has a sinc(x)1 frequency response. This is the
result of the symbol time corresponding to the inverse of the carrier spacing.
The sinc shape has a narrow main lobe with many side lobes that decay
slowly with the magnitude of the frequency difference away from the centre.
Each carrier has a peak at its centre frequency and nulls evenly spaced with
a frequency gap 1.2
equal to the carrier spacing.
1

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

-0.2

-0.4
Figure
-5 -4
A.2-3- 1: -2Spectrum
-1 0
of1 an2 OFDM
3 4
signal.
5 6

The orthogonal nature of the transmission is a result of the peak of each

subcarrier corresponding to the nulls of all other subcarriers, as shown in
Figure A.2 - 1.

A.3 Cyclic Prefix

Passing the signal through a time-dispersive channel causes ISI. In an OFDM
system, a loss of the orthogonality appears due to ISI, resulting in ICI2 .
For a given system bandwidth the symbol rate for an OFDM signal is
much lower than a single carrier transmission scheme. It is because the
OFDM system bandwidth is broken up into Nc subcarriers resulting in a
symbol rate that is Nc times lower. This low symbol rate makes OFDM
naturally resistant to effects of ISI caused by multipath propagation.
The multiple signals that appear due to the multipath propagation arrive
at the receiver at different times, spreading, this way, the symbol boundaries
and causing energy leakage between the OFDM symbols. Furthermore, in
an OFDM signal the amplitude and phase of the subcarrier must remain
1
sinc(x)=sin(x)/x
2
Inter-Carrier Interference
APPENDIX A. OFDM THEORY 92

constant over a period of the symbol in order to maintain the orthogonality

of the subcarriers. If they are no constant, the spectral shape will not have
nulls at the correct frequencies, resulting in ICI.
In order to combat the effects of ISI on an OFDM signal, a guard period to
the start of each symbol is added. This guard period, which is called the cyclic
prefix (CP), is a copy of the last part of the OFDM symbol, thus extending
the length of the symbol waveform. Figure A.3 - 1 shows the structure of
an OFDM symbol. The CP is prepended to the transmitted symbol and
removed at the receiver before the demodulation. Then, the total length of
the symbol can be written as Tsym = Tg +Tb , where Tsym is the total length of
the symbol in samples, Tg is the length of the guard period in samples, and
Tb is the size of the IFFT used to generate the OFDM signal, representing
the useful symbol time.

CP
CP

Tg Tb
Tsym

Figure A.3 - 1: Addition of the cyclic prefix to an OFDM signal.

Consequently, the benefit obtained for the addition of a cyclic prefix is

twofold. First, it avoids ISI acting as a guard band between two successive
symbols. Seconds, it converts the linear convolution with the channel impulse
response into a cyclic convolution.
However, the length of the cyclic prefix has to be chosen carefully. On
one hand, it should be, at least, as long as the significant part of the impulse
response experienced by the transmitted signal, allowing some time for the
transient signal to decay, and thus, avoiding ISI and ICI. One the other hand,
it should be as small as possible because the transmitted energy increases
with its length, causing a loss in the SNR. Equation A.3 - 1 gives the SNR
loss due to the insertion of the CP. Moreover, the number of symbols per
second that are transmitted per Hz of bandwidth also decreases with the
CP. This decreasing is expressed by R(1 − Tg /Tsym ).
 
Tg
SN Rloss = −10 log10 1 − (A.3 - 1)
Tsym
APPENDIX A. OFDM THEORY 93

A.4 The OFDM system model

CP

x0,m y0,m
w(n) D
M E
I U h(n) M
. . X s(n) r(n) U F .
F .
. . X F .
F .
. . T .
T .

xNc-1,m yNc-1,m

Figure A.4 - 1: Model of an OFDM system.

OFDM signals are typically generated digitally due to the difficulty in

creating large banks of phase lock oscillators and receivers in the analog
domain. Figure A.4 - 1 shows the block diagram of a such an OFDM system3 .
In the transmitter, the incoming data stream is grouped in blocks of Nc
data symbols, which are the OFDM symbols, and can be represented by a
vector xm . Next, an IFFT is performed on each data symbol block and a
cyclic prefix of length Ng is added.
The received signal is, generally, the sum of a linear convolution with
the discrete channel impulse response, h(n), and an additive white Gaussian
noise, w(n). It has to be said that it is implicitly assumed that the channel
fading is slow enough to consider it constant during one symbol, and both,
transmitter and receiver, are perfectly synchronized. At the receiver, the
cyclic prefix is removed, and then, the data symbol yk,m (frequency index k,
OFDM symbol m) is obtained by performing the FFT operation
Moreover, the transmitted data symbols, xk,m , can be estimated from the
received data symbols, yk,m , using a single tap equalizer followed by a slicer.
This estimated symbol is obtained by dividing each received data symbol by
its corresponding channel coefficient.
3
A more detailed analysis of the mathematical expressions of the OFDM conforming
process can be found in [32] and [33].
APPENDIX A. OFDM THEORY 94

A.5 Summary
After the explanation given about OFDM, it can be said that OFDM is
a wideband modulation scheme that is specifically able to cope with the
problems of the multipath reception. This is achieved by transmitting many
narrowband overlapping digital signals in parallel, inside one wide band.
Increasing the number of parallel transmission channels reduces the data
rate that each individual carrier must convey, and that lengthens the symbol
period. As a result, the delay time of reflected waves is suppressed to within
one symbol time.
The basics that have been explained, as well as the OFDM system model,
are derived for a time-invariant channel. When working with time-variant
channels, the variations erode the orthogonality of the subcarriers and cause
ICI or "FFT leakage". In those cases, a more complex system is needed to
model such behaviour [32] [33].
Appendix B

Derivation of formulas

B.1 Description of the correlation matrices

The correlation matrices describing correlation properties at both ends of a
communication system are explained in this appendix. These parameters can
be extracted from measurement results, but they can also be derived from
single-input multiple-output (SIMO) results already published in the open
literature [31].

s1(t) y1(t)

scattering
s2(t) y2(t)
s(t) .
.
medium .
. y(t)
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .

sNT(t) yNR(t)
NT transmit NR receive
antennas antennas

Figure B.1 - 1: A MIMO channel model in a scattering environment.

Figure B.1 - 1 shows a MIMO scenario with NT transmit antennas and

NR receive antennas. The signals at the transmit antenna array are denoted
by the vector s(t) = [s1 (t), s2 (t), ..., sNT (t)]T , and similarly, the signals at the
receiver are y(t) = [y1 (t), y2 (t), ..., yNR (t)]T , where (·)T denotes transposition,

95
APPENDIX B. DERIVATION OF FORMULAS 96

and sm (t) and yn (t) are the signals at the m-th transmit antenna port and
at the n-th receive antenna port, respectively.
The flat fading MIMO radio channel describing the connection between
transmitter and receiver can be expressed as
 
α11 α12 · · · α1NT
 α21 α22 · · · α2NT 
H =  .. , (B.1 - 1)
 
.. ... ..
 . . . 
αNR 1 αNR 2 · · · αNR NT

where αnm is the complex transmission coefficient from antenna m at the

transmitter to antenna n at the receiver, and it has been assumed to be
complex Gaussian distributed with identical average power.
The relation between the vectors s(t) and y(t) can be expressed as

y(t) = H(t)s(t). (B.1 - 2)

Assuming that all antenna elements have the same polarization and the
same radiation pattern, the spatial complex correlation coefficient at the
transmitter between antennas m1 and m2 is given by Equation B.1 - 3, where
the spatial correlation coefficient at the transmitter, ρTXm1 m2 , is assumed to
be independent of n. Similarly, the spatial complex correlation coefficient
observed at the receive side, ρRX
n1 n2 , defined in Equation B.1 - 4, is assumed to
be independent of m:
ρTX
m1 m2 = hαnm1 , αnm2 i, (B.1 - 3)

ρRX
n1 n2 = hαn1 m , αn2 m i. (B.1 - 4)
The operation ha, bi1 denotes an inner product between a and b, and is
calculated as ha, bi = E{ab∗ }/(σa σb ), where σa is the standard deviation of
the variable a, and (·)∗ performs the conjugation operation.
The symmetrical complex correlation matrices can be defined from both,
Equation B.1 - 3 and Equation B.1 - 4:
 
ρTX
11 ρTX
12 · · · ρTX
1NT
 ρTX∗ ρTX · · · ρTX 
 21 22 2NT 
RT =  .. .. .. ..  , (B.1 - 5)
 . . . . 
ρTX∗ TX∗ TX
NT 1 ρNT 2 · · · ρNT NT N ×N
T T

1
ha, bi=hb, ai∗
APPENDIX B. DERIVATION OF FORMULAS 97

 
ρRX
11 ρRX
12 ··· ρRX
1NR
 ρRX∗
21 ρRX
22 ··· ρRX
2NR

RR =  . (B.1 - 6)
 
.. .. .. .. 
 . . . . 
ρRX∗ RX∗ RX
NR 1 ρNR 2 · · · ρNR NR NR ×NR

Moreover, the correlation coefficient between two arbitrary transmission

coefficients connecting two different sets of antennas is expressed as

ρm1 n1 TX RX
m2 n2 = hαn1 m1 , αn2 m2 i = ρm1 m2 ρn1 n2 . (B.1 - 7)

Finally, it can be deducted from all this mathematical analysis that the
spatial correlation matrix of the MIMO radio channel is represented by the
Kronecker product of the spatial correlation matrices in both transmit and
receive ends, and is given by RMIMO = RT ⊗ RR , where ⊗ represents the
Kronecker product [31].

B.2 Estimation of the transmitted symbols when

using
• 2x1 STC
Space-time
Alamouti Scheme
coding
• STC with rate 1
B.2.1 Alamouti with one receive antenna
Æ 2 input symbols are transmitted in two time steps
(f1) (f0)
t1 t0
-1 1
s* s
2 1 2 0
Input Output
s = (s0s1) r = (r0r1)

1 1
s* s
2 0 2 1

The received symbols are:

Figure B.2 - 1: 2×1 Alamouti scheme.

As shown in Figure B.2 - 1, the signal obtained at the receiver side when
using the Alamouti algorithm is defined as
      
r0 1 h1 h2 s0 n0
=√ + . (B.2 - 1)
r1∗ ∗
2 h2 −h1
∗
s1 n∗1
The estimated transmitted signal is then calculated from the formula
s = Hν H y, where y = [r0 , r1∗ ]T .
b
APPENDIX B. DERIVATION OF FORMULAS 98

The hermitian of the virtual channel matrix is

 ∗ 
H h1 h2
Hν = .
h∗2 −h1

Finally, the estimated transmit signal is given by

s = Hν H y
b
⇓
   
sb0 H r0
= Hν =
sb1 r1∗
   
1 s0 n0
= √ Hν H Hν + Hν H
=
2 s1 n∗1

h∗1 h∗1
      
1 h2 h1 h2 s0 h2 n0
=√ ∗ + =
2 h2 −h1 h2 −h∗1
∗
s1 ∗
h2 −h1 n∗1

h∗1 h1 + h2 h∗2 h∗1 h2 − h2 h∗1 h∗1 n0 + h2 n∗1

    
1 s0
=√ + =
2 h∗2 h1 − h1 h∗2 h∗2 h2 + h1 h∗1 s1 h∗2 n0 − h1 n∗1

h∗1 n0 + h2 n∗1
    
1 |h1 |2 + |h2 |2 0 s0
=√ + =
2 0 |h1 | + |h2 |2
2
s1 h∗2 n0 − h1 n∗1

h∗1 n0 + h2 n∗1
    
1 1 0 s0
= √ (|h1 |2 + |h2 |2 ) + =
2 0 1 s1 h∗2 n0 − h1 n∗1
1
= √ h2 I2 s + ne. (B.2 - 2)
2
Once the corresponding operations for estimating the transmitted signal
have been performed, the result is represented in Equation B.2 - 2, where:
• h2 = |h1 |2 + |h2 |2 is the power gain of the channel,

• I2 is the 2×2 identity matrix,

• s = [s0 , s1 ]T represents the transmitted symbols, and

 ∗
h2 n∗1

h1 n0
• n
e= is some modified noise.
h∗2 n0 −h1 n∗1
APPENDIX B. DERIVATION
Scheme OF FORMULAS 99
• 2x1 Alamouti
Space-time coding
• STC with rate 1
B.2.2 Alamouti with two receive antennas
Æ 2 input symbols are transmitted in two time steps
(f1) (f0) n0
t1 t0
-1
h11
1
s* s
2 1 2 0
Input h12 Output
s = (s0s1) (r0r1)T
STC h21 Receiver
1 1
s* s
2 0 2 1 h22

n1

Figure B.2 - 2: 2×2 Alamouti scheme.

The received signal from a 2 × 2 Alamouti scheme, as depicted above, is

     
r0 (1) h11 h21   n 0 (1)
 = √1 
 r0 (2)   h12 h22  s0  n0 (2) 
y= ∗ ∗ ∗ 
 + n∗1 (1)  . (B.2 - 3)

 r1 (1)  2 h21 −h11 s1
∗
r1 (2) h∗22 −h∗12 n∗1 (2)

s = HH
The estimated transmitted signal can be calculated from b ν y, where
∗ ∗ T
y = [r0 (1)r0 (2)r1 (1)r1 (2)] .
The virtual channel matrix, Hν , is expressed as
 
h11 h21
 h12 h22 
Hν = 
 h∗21 −h∗11  .


h∗22 −h∗12

Therefore, the hermitian of the virtual channel matrix is

 ∗
h11 h∗12 h21

H h22
Hν = .
h∗21 h∗22 −h11 −h12

The estimation of the transmitted symbols is performed as follows:

   
  r 0 (1)   n0 (1)
sb0 H  r0 (2) 
  1 H s0 
H n0 (2) 
= Hν  ∗ = √ Hν Hν + Hν
=
sb1 r1 (1)  2 s1  n∗1 (1) 
∗
r1 (2) n∗1 (2)
APPENDIX B. DERIVATION OF FORMULAS 100

 
h 11 h21
h∗11 h∗12 h21
   
1 h22  h12 h22  s0
=√ ∗ ∗  h21 −h∗11  s1 + n
 ∗  e=
2 h21 h22 −h11 −h12
h∗22 −h∗12

  
1 1 0 s0
= √ (|h11 |2 + |h21 |2 + |h12 |2 + |h22 |2 ) +n
e=
2 0 1 s1

1 1
= √ (kh1 k22 + kh2 k22 )I2 + n
e = √ h2 I2 s + ne. (B.2 - 4)
2 2
Equation B.2 - 4 expresses the obtained result for the process of estimating
the transmitted symbols. As described in the previous section:

• I2 is the 2 × 2 identity matrix,

• s is the transmitted signal,

• h2 = kh1 k22 + kh2 k22 = |h11 |2 + |h21 |2 + |h12 |2 + |h22 |2 is the power gain
of the channel, and
 ∗
h11 n0 (1) + h∗12 n0 (2) + h21 n∗1 (1) + h22 n∗1 (2)

• n
e = represents some
h∗21 n0 (1) + h∗22 n0 (2) − h11 n∗1 (1) − h12 n∗1 (2)
modified noise.
Appendix C

Parameters of the simulator

C.1 Parameters description

C.1.1 OFDM symbol description
An OFDM symbol is composed by three types of subcarriers, data, pilots, and
null subcarriers used for guard bands and the zero DC offset. The number
of these subcarriers will determine the required size for the FFT (or IFFT)
algorithm. Once the OFDM signal is converted into time domain, a copy
of the last part of the useful symbol period, termed cyclic prefix (CP), is
appended at the beginning of each symbol to maintain the orthogonality of
the tones. From all these OFDM symbol characteristics, some parameters
can be defined.
The standard [4] (see page 428) defines two types of parameters, the
primitive parameters, that will be specified by users or system requirements,
and the derived parameters, defined in terms of the primitive ones.
Five are the primitive parameters that characterize the OFDM symbol:

• BW : nominal channel bandwidth.

• Ndata : number of data subcarriers.

• Npilot : number of pilot subcarriers.

• nf : sampling factor, used with BW and Nused (number of non-zero

subcarriers) to determine the subcarrier spacing and the useful symbol
time.

• G: ratio of CP time to useful time.

101
APPENDIX C. PARAMETERS OF THE SIMULATOR 102

Next, derived parameters, which are dependent of the primitive parameters,

are listed:

• Nused : number of used non-zero subcarriers.

Nused = Ndata + Npilot

• NFFT : number of points used to perform the FFT. It is specified to be

the smallest power of two, and greater than Nused .

NFFT = 2dlog2 (Ndata )e

• Fs : sampling frequency.
 
nf BW
Fs = 8000
8000

• ∆f : subcarrier spacing.
Fs
∆f =
NFFT
• Tb : useful symbol time.
1
Tb =
∆f
• Tg : CP time.
Tg = GTb

• Tsym : OFDM symbol time.

Tsym = Tb + Tg

• Ts : sampling time.
Tb
Ts =
NFFT
APPENDIX C. PARAMETERS OF THE SIMULATOR 103

C.1.2 Transmission parameters

Besides the parameters that describe the OFDM symbol, other parameters
are required in order to define parameters for the transmission, such as the
frame duration, the packet size, or the total number of transmitted OFDM
symbols. As in the previous section, they are classified either in primary or
in secondary parameters.
The primary parameters are:

• Ntrain : number of training symbols in one frame.

• Tframe : frame duration.

The following parameters depend on either parameters defining the OFDM

symbol or the transmission.

• NOFDM : number of transmitted OFDM symbols in one frame.

Tframe
NOFDM =
Tsym

• NTsym : total number of transmitted symbols in one frame.

NTsym = NOFDM + Ntrain

• Ntx-data : number of transmitted data symbols.

Ntx-data = Ndata NOFDM

• Ntcb : total number of coded bits per allocation subchannel per OFDM
symbol.
Ntcb = Ntx-data Ma

• Ntx-sym : total number of transmitted symbols.

Ntx-sym = Nused NOFDM

• Spacket : packet size transmitted by the source.

Spacket = NOFDM RNdata Ma

APPENDIX C. PARAMETERS OF THE SIMULATOR 104

C.1.3 Channel parameters

In order to define the channel model, several parameters need to be specified.
In the simulations, the following default values were used:

• Sampling frequency of the channel simulator: fsam = 100 MHz

• Speed of light: c = 3 · 108 m/s

• Carrier frequency: fc = 2 GHz

• Velocity of the mobile subscriber, v: variant

• Maximum doppler frequency: fd = v fcc

• Number of paths of the time-variant channel model: Npath = 8. This

parameter defines the number of sinusoids used for the Rosa-Zheng
time variant-channel model.
APPENDIX C. PARAMETERS OF THE SIMULATOR 105

C.1.4 Parameter values

Furthermore, the required values for some of these parameters are described
in the standard. These values are given in Table C.1 - 1.

Parameter Value
Ndata 192
Npilot 8
Ntrain 3
Variable, from 1.25 to 20 MHz,
BW being an integer multiple
of 1.25, 1.5 or 1.75 MHz
1. For channel bandwidths
multiple of 1.75 MHz, nf = 8/7
2. For channel bandwidths
multiple of 1.5 MHz, nf = 86/75
3. For channel bandwidths
multiple of 1.25 MHz, nf = 144/125
nf 4. For channel bandwidths
multiple of 2.75 MHz, nf = 316/275
5. For channel bandwidhts
multiple of 2.0 MHz, nf = 57/50
6. For channel bandwidths
not otherwise specified, nf = 8/7
G 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32
Number of lower frequency guard subcarriers 28
Number of higher frequency guard subcarriers 27
Frequency offset indices of guard subcarriers −128, −127, ..., −101
+101, +102, ..., +127
Frequency offset indices of pilot carriers −88, −63, −38, −13
+13, +38, +63, +88
Tframe (msec) 2.5, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12.5, 20

Table C.1 - 1: Values for primary parameters.

APPENDIX C. PARAMETERS OF THE SIMULATOR 106

C.2 WiMAX vs. Wi-Fi simulator

As already mentioned in Section 1.1.2, there are several differences between
WiMAX and Wi-Fi systems. In this way, both simulators will differ from
each other in some parameter values. The main differences between both are
summarized in the following chart:

WiMAX Wi-Fi
Ndata 192 48
Npilot 8 4
NFFT 256 64
BW variable fixed
(1.25 to 20 MHz) (20 MHz)
Coding CC+RS CC
CP variable fixed

Table C.2 - 1: Differences between WiMAX and Wi-Fi parameters.

Appendix D

WiMAX simulator block diagram

In order to have a general view of the WiMAX simulator described through

the thesis, a complete block diagram of the Simulink model file is given in
this appendix (see Figure D.0 - 1). A brief description of the different blocks
is exposed with the purpose of offering a better understanding of the figure.
As mentioned in Chapter 2, data from a binary source is first encoded
and mapped into QAM symbols. The block "Coding TX" performs these
operations. It is composed of a bank of seven different sources, encoders,
and mappers, each of which is optimized to work with a different data rate
depending on the modulation and coding scheme being used. The encoder,
as explained, consists on a concatenation of an outer Reed-Solomon encoder
with an inner convolutional encoder. It is a flexible coding process due to
the puncturing of the signal, allowing different coding rates. The last part
of the encoder is a process of interleaving to avoid large blocks of bit errors.
Once the data from the source is mapped into QAM symbols, the OFDM
symbols must be constructed. An OFDM symbol is composed by 192 data
subcarriers, 8 pilot subcarriers, 1 zero DC subcarrier, and 55 guard carriers.
Furthermore, preambles consisting of 3 OFDM symbols are appended at
the beginning of each frame. Preambles are formed with a short training
sequence, followed by a long training sequence, and the FCH1 . Depending
on the number of transmit antennas, two kinds of long training sequences
are used. If only one antenna is transmitting, the long training sequence
utilizes even subcarriers, therefore it is called PEVEN . However, another long
training sequence shall be used when transmitting space-time coded downlink
bursts. Because the STC scheme achieves diversity by transmitting with two
antennas, a preamble has to be transmitted from both transmit antennas
simultaneously. Thus, the first antenna transmits a preamble using PEVEN
1
Frame Control Header

107
APPENDIX D. WIMAX SIMULATOR BLOCK DIAGRAM 108

and the preamble transmitted from the second antenna is set according to
the sequence PODD , which uses, in this case, a subset of odd subcarriers.
Blocks "Pilot", "Training Ant. 0", and "Training Ant. 1" generate
the pilot and both training sequences, respectively.
OFDM data symbols are obtained after rearranging the data vector from
the "Coding TX" block in a matrix form that has 192 rows (number of data
subcarriers in an OFDM symbol). Moreover, if Alamouti coding is selected
in a parameter file, "STC" performs the Alamouti algorithm described in
Section 5.1.2 to the OFDM data symbols. Otherwise, this block has no
impact on the signal.
The next block, called "Assembler", deals with the task of rearranging
data, pilots, trainings, and zero DC subcarrier, as explained in Section 2.6.
After the assembling process, the 55 guard bands are appended at the end of
each frame, the signal is converted to the time domain and the cyclic prefix
is added. Then, the signal is sent over the channel, which is implemented in
the block "Channel Model".
The receiver performs the reverse operations to get the transmitted data.
The cyclic prefix is removed from each symbol and the signal is converted to
the frequency domain using an FFT algorithm. As it has been told before,
an OFDM symbol consists of data, pilot, trainings, a zero DC subcarrier,
and some guard bands. Thus, a process to separate all these subcarriers is
needed. First, the guard bands are removed, and then, a disassembling is
performed to obtain pilots, data, and trainings. The trainings are utilized in
the "Channel estimator". The estimated channel coefficients can be used
in the demapper to realize an equalization of the data symbols to compensate
the frequency-selective fading of the multipath propagation channel. To end,
data is decoded following the inverse steps as performed in the transmitter
(deinterleaving, inserting zeros as the inverse process of puncturing, Viterbi
decoding of the convolutional code, and Reed-Solomon decoding). These two
last steps, demapping and decoding, are performed in the "Decoding RX"
block. As its analogous block, it consists of a bank of seven demappers and
decoders, where the appropriate modulation and coding scheme is selected
by the AMC signal explained next.
Furthermore, a feedback mechanism of adaptive modulation and coding
(AMC) is performed in order to allow the system to shift modulation scheme
and so, maintain the connection quality and link stability, thus allowing the
system to overcome time-selective fading. This AMC mechanism works by
estimating the SNR of the channel, and depending on the desired conditions
of the channel established by a given target BER, changing modulation and
coding. These operations are performed in the "Calculate AMC" block.
 [1x180]
Pilot

Pilot
[201x3] [1x180]
Training Ant. 0
Train0
[201x3] [201x366] [256x366] [256x366] [320x366]
Sym Zero Padding IFFT Add CP
Train1 [201x366] [256x366]
[201x3] [201x3]
Training Ant. 1
Data
[192x360]

[34560x1] Group Data for [192x180] [192x360]

Symbols STC
[34560x1] OFDM Symbols
[155520x1]
AMC Data Bits

[207360x1] [320x366]
Code Bits
TX
Coding TX [155520x1]
[7x1]
RX FER/BER CodedErrorvec
[155520x1] [7x1] Channel Model
AMC

[320x183] [384x1
TX
[207360x1]
[7x1]
RX FER/BER UncodedErrorvec
[207360x1]
AMC

AMC
Data Bits
[155520x1]

Data Data
[34560x1]
[256x183] [320x183]
Sym Remove Zeros FFT Remove CP
Code Bits [201x3] [201x183] [256x183] [256x183]
[207360x1] Channel Train
[384x1] [201x3]
Channel
Estimator [384x1]
Decoding RX 19.87

SNR [dB]

AMC 3

AMC
-1
Z
APPENDIX D. WIMAX SIMULATOR BLOCK DIAGRAM

Estimated SNR

AMC
Target BER TargetBER

Calculate AMC
109

Figure D.0 - 1: Simulink block diagram of the WiMAX simulator.

Appendix E

Abbreviations and Symbols

E.1 List of abbreviations

3G Third Generation
3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
4G Fourth Generation
AAS Adaptive Antenna System
AMC Adaptive Modulation and Coding
AP Access Point
ARQ Automatic Retransmission Request
AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise
BER Bit Error Rate
BS Base Station
BTC Block Turbo Coding
CC Convolutional Coding
CIR Channel Impulse Response
CP Cyclic Prefix
CSI Channel State Information
CTC Convolutional Turbo Coding
DC Direct Current
DFS Dynamic Frequency Selection
DL DownLink
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
FCH Frame Control Header
FDD Frequency Division Duplexing
FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
FEC Forward Error Correction

110
APPENDIX E. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 111

FFT Fast Fourier Transform

GF Galois Field
HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access
ICI Inter-Carrier Interference
i.i.d. Independent Identically Distributed
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform
I-METRA Intelligent Multi-Element Transmit and Receive Antennas
IMT International Mobile Telecommunications
IP Internet Protocol
IQ In-phase Quadrature-phase
ISI Inter-Symbol Interference
LGPL Lesser General Public License
LLR Log-Likelihood Ratio
LoS Line of Sight
LS Least Squares
LSE Least Squares Estimation
MAC Medium Access Control
MAN Metropolitan Area Network
MAP Maximum A Posteriori
MEA Multi-Element Antenna
MIMO Multiple-Input Multiple-Output
MISO Multiple-Input Simple-Output
MRC Maximum Ratio Combining
MS Mobile Station
MSS Mobile Subscriber Station
NLoS Non Line of Sight
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
PAM Pulse Amplitude Modulation
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
pdf Probability Density Function
PDP Power Delay Profile
PRBS Pseudo-Random Binary Sequence
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QoS Quality of Service
RRC Root-Raised Cosine
RF Radio Frequency
RMS Root Mean Square
RS Reed-Solomon
SC Single Carrier
APPENDIX E. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 112

SIMO Single-Input Multiple-Output

SINR Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio
SISO Single-Input Single-Output
SNR Signal-to-Noise Ratio
SOHO Small-Office Home-Office
SS Spread Spectrum
SS Subscriber Station
STBC Space-Time Block Coding
STC Space-Time Coding
TDD Time Division Duplexing
TDM Time Division Multiplexing
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
UL UpLink
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
VoIP Voice over IP
WCDMA Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access
Wi-Fi Wireless-Fidelity
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
APPENDIX E. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 113

E.2 List of symbols

⊗ Continuous-time convolution
(·)∗ Complex conjugation operation
(·)−1 Inversion operation
(·)T Transposition
(·)H Hermitian operation
a Binary inversion of the sequence a
As Vector that represents the points in the constellation map
bk Bit on position k
Bcoh Coherence bandwidth
Bd Doppler spread
BER0 Target BER
BW Nominal channel bandwidth
c Speed of light
ci (t) Tap coefficients
C Amplitude of the fading component
Cm Normalization factor in the modulation map
C Set of complex numbers
dE Euclidean distance
E{} Mathematical expectation
Eb /N0 Bit energy to noise rate
fc Carrier frequency
fd Doppler frequency
fM Maximum Doppler shift
fN Nyquist frequency
fRay (a) Rayleigh fading distribution
fRice (a) Rice fading distribution
fsam Sampling frequency of the channel simulator
Fs Sampling frequency of the OFDM symbol
G Ratio of the CP time to the useful symbol time
G Channel gain matrix
h Vector of channel coefficients
ĥ Channel coefficients estimates
h(t) Channel impulse response
h(t, τ ) Channel time-varying impulse response
hb (t, τ ) Baseband equivalent impulse response of the channel
H Channel matrix
Hrc (f ) Raised cosine filter frequency response
Hrrc (f ) Root-raised cosine filter frequency response
APPENDIX E. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 114

HR (f ) Frequency response of the receive filter

HT (f ) Frequency response of the transmit filter
Hν Virtual channel matrix
I Vector for the interleaving matrix
I0 Modified Bessel function of first kind and order zero
I2 2 × 2 identity matrix
k Number of uncoded bits that enter the RS encoder
K Rice distribution factor
l Length of the binary sequences of a Galois field GF(2l )
L Number of multipath components
NT Number of transmit antennas
Ma Number of transmitted bits per symbol (modulation alphabet)
n Number of coded bytes at the output of the RS encoder
n Average noise power
n Noise vector
n
e Modified noise vector
nf Sampling factor, used in the definition of the OFDM symbol
NR Number of receive antennas
Nc Number of subbands the OFDM signal is divided in
Ncolumns Number of columns in the interleaving matrix
Ncpc Number of transmitted bits per symbol
Ndata Number of used data subcarriers
NFFT Number of points used when performing the FFT algorithm
NOFDM Number of transmitted OFDM symbols in one frame
Npath Number of paths of the time-variant channel model
Nrows Number of rows in the interleaving matrix
NRS Number of blocks used in the RS encoder
Ntcb Total number of coded bits
Ntrain Number of training symbols per frame
Ntx-data Number of transmitted data symbols
Ntx-sym Total number of transmitted OFDM symbols
NTsym Total number of transmitted symbols in one frame
Nused Number of used non-zero subcarriers
NC (0, 1) Set of complex numbers, with zero mean and unit variance
ps Vector containing the pilot subcarriers
p(y|s) Conditional probability, probability of y given s
Pb Probability of bit error
Pbc Probability of bit error per carrier
PALL Frequency domain sequence from which are derived all full
bandwidth preambles
APPENDIX E. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 115

PEVEN Frequency domain sequence for long training symbols constructed

with even subcarriers of PALL
PODD Frequency domain sequence for long training symbols constructed
with odd subcarriers of PALL
PSHORT Frequency domain sequence for short training symbols
Q(x) Complementary Gaussian error function
r Vector of received symbols
R Overall rate
Re{} Operation to extract the real part
RMIMO Spatial correlation matrix of the MIMO channel
RR Transmit correlation matrix
Rsym Symbol rate
RT Receive correlation matrix
s Average signal power
s Vector containing the transmitted symbols
sb Transmit symbol estimates
Spacket Packet size, in bits, that is transmitted by the source
S Symbol block matrix
t Number of bytes a RS encoder can correct
Tb Useful symbol time
Tcoh Coherence time
Tg CP symbol time
Tframe Frame duration
Tm Multipath spread
Ts Sampling time of the OFDM symbol
Tsym OFDM symbol time
v Vehicle speed
wk Output of the PRBS generator
W Signal bandwidth
y Vector containing the received symbol
α Roll-off factor
αnm Complex transmission coefficient from antenna m to antenna n
βi Weight factor
γn SNR threshold
δ(t) Dirac delta function
∆f Subcarrier spacing
 Property operator
ϕ Angle of arrival of the received signal component
φ Phase delay of a multipath signal
ρ2 Power of the received non-fading signal
ρTX
ij Spatial correlation coefficient at the transmitter
APPENDIX E. ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS 116

ρRX
ij Spatial correlation coefficient at the receiver
σx Standard deviation of x
στ RMS delay spread
σv2 Noise variance
θ Phase alteration experienced by the multipath fading signal
τ Channel multipath delay
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