OFDM Lecture 6

1 Synchronization and frequency estimation

errors
In our previous study of OFDM, we assumed synchronization and channel
estimation assuming that we knew the carrier frequency, the sampling rate
and the starting time. We also assumed that the channel was static over the
symbol period. In this section we examine the eect of non-static channels
and symbol, frequency and sampling time errors.
1.1 Doppler eects
We earlier stated that if the relative Doppler f
d
T(N +L) < 0.01 then we did
not experience that much error due to Doppler shift. This statement needs
clarication and to do that lets look at what happens when we have Doppler
shifts.
To see what happens in the presence of Doppler, rst consider a one-tap
channel with a xed delay h(t, ) =
0
(t)(
0
).
Then
h(t, ) x(t) = (t)
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2
k
0
NT
e
j2
kt
NT
y
n
= h(t, ) x(t)|
t=nT
= (nT)
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2
k
0
NT
e
j2
knT
NT
DFT(y
n
) =
1
N
N1

n=0
(nT)e
j2
nl
N
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2
k
0
NT
e
j2
kt
NT
=
1
N
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2
k
0
NT
N1

n=0
(nT)e
j2
n(kl)
N
=
1

N
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2
k
0
NT
A
lk
where
1

N1
n=0
(nT) exp(j2
ln
N
) = A
l
.
1
The SINR in this case (ignoring background noise) is
SINR =
|A
0
|
2

l=0
|A
l
|
2
So the question is, in a 1-tap channel how much Doppler spread can we
tolerate (we then extend this to a multi-tap channel.)
DFT() = E
E
i,k
= exp(j2
(i 1) (k 1)
N
)
Interference =
H
E
H
Eu
H
E1
H
E1
where E1
1,k
= E
1,k
and E1
l,k
= 0 for all l > 1 and all k.
So
Interference = N
H
|
N1

n=0

i
|
2
Note if
l
= C for all l, then the interference is 0.
E[Interference] = E[N
H
|
N1

n=0

i
|
2
]
= R
1/2
a
u
where u are zero-mean, i.i.d. unit-norm complex Gaussian random variables
and R
a
is the covariance matrix of .
So
E[Interference] = E[Nu
H
R
a
u u
H
R
H
2
a
11
H
R
1/2
a
u]
= E[u(NR
a
R
H
2
a
11
H
R
1/2
a
)u]
= E[Nu
H
USU
H
u]
=
N

i=0
g
i
2
where g
i
are the eigenvalues of NR
a
R
H
2
a
11
H
R
1/2
a
. So the SINR can be
written as
SINR =
1
H
R
a
1
trace(NR
a
R
H
2
a
11
H
R
1/2
a
=
1
H
R
a
1
Ntrace(R
a
) 1
H
R
a
1
For example, suppose f
d
= 100/8, T = 10
4
, N = 8, then using =
J
0
(2f
d
), we nd
R
a
(i, k) =
2
H
J
0
(2f
d
(i k))
SINR = 38 dB
which is enough SNR to have a 16 QAM constellation at a VERY low symbol
error rate.
Now suppose we have N = 64, then f
d
NT = 810
2
and the eigenvalues
of R
a
are 63.3, 0.66 and the SINR is
SINR = 19.8dB
which will support an uncoded 16 QAM constellation at a symbol error rate
of about 10
5
.
In the case above f
d
(NT) 10
1
.
Now suppose the number of tones is 128, then SINR = 13.7 dB.
Notice that for a xed sampling rate, and xed Doppler frequencies, the
error due to fading increases with N. As the symbol period increases the
eect of the Doppler fading increases.
2 Phase Noise
(From Oscillator Phase Noise: a Tutorial by Lee and Hajimiri and Cio
notes, chapter 6 and Steve Kuner at Motorola Labs.
3
What is phase noise?
First lets recall how a voltage controlled oscillator works:
Ideally, we input a voltage v(t) and the output signal is
s
ref
(t) = Acos(2(f
0
t + k
0
_
t
0
v()d))
And the resulting frequency is f
0
+k
0
v(t). (Remember that frequency is
the derivative of phase.
2.1 Simple VCO
2.2 Simple VCO stu
Many ways to build a VCO often engineers build a VCO without meaning
to! For example, circuits that have some uncontrolled oscillation.
But a basic VCO is the following: a resistor, capacity and an inductor in
parallel.
Recall that the basic impedance of a resistor, capacitor and an inductor
are (ignoring initial conditions)
Component Time domain Laplace Domain Impedance
Resistor v(t) = Ri(t) R
Capacitance v(t) =
1
C
_
t
0
i(t)dt
1
Cs
Inductance v(t) = L
dv(t)
dt
Ls
So what is the impedance of the parallel RLC circuit?
Recall that when two impedances Z
1
(s) and Z
2
(s) are in parallel, the
resulting impedance is Z =
1
1
Z
1
(s)
+
1
Z
2
(s)
=
Z
1
(s)Z
2
(s)
Z
1
(s)+Z
2
(s)
.
So the impedance of the resistor in parallel with the capacitor is
Z
R||C
(s) =
1
1
R
+ Cs
=
R
1 + RCs
And the impedance of the inductor in parallel with Z
R||C
(s) is
Z
R||C||L
(s) =
1
1+RCs
R
+
1
Ls
4
=
RLs
Ls(1 + RCs) + R
=
RLs
RCLs
2
+ Ls + R
=
s
C
s
2
+
1
RC
s +
1
CL
=
s
C
(s
1
2RC
(1 +
_
1
4R
2
C
L
))(s
1
2RC
(1
_
1
4R
2
C
L
))
L
1
(
s
(s + )(s + )
=
1

(exp(t) exp(t))
Now lets call
_
1
4R
2
C
L
= jw
0
We are assuming here that 4R
2
C > L to
make this term imaginary otherwise we dont have any oscillation!
=
1
2RC
(1 + jw
0
)
=
1
2RC
(1 jw
0
)
=
2jw
0
2RC

=
1 + jw
0
2jw
0

=
1 jw
0
2jw
0
So then
z(t) =
1
2jw
0
_
(1 + jw
0
) exp(
t(1 + jw
0
)
2RC
) (1 jw
0
) exp(
t(1 jw
0
)
2RC
)
_
=
exp(
t
2RC
)
2jw
0
_
(1 + jw
0
) exp(
t(jw
0
)
2RC
) (1 jw
0
) exp(
t(jw
0
)
2RC
)
_
=
exp(
t
2RC
)
2jw
0
_
2j sin(
w
0
t
2RC
) + 2jw
0
cos(
w
0
t
2RC
)
_
= exp(
t
2RC
)
_

1
w
0
sin(
w
0
t
2RC
) + cos(
w
0
t
2RC
)
_
5
We can simplify this by observing the following
cos() B sin() =
1

1 + B
2
(cos() cos() sin() sin())
=
1

1 + B
2
cos( + )
= acos(

1
1 + B
2
)
So nally the voltage response from impulsive current to our parallel RLC
circuit is
= acos(

_
1
1 +
1
w
2
0
)
= acos(

_
w
2
0
+ 1
w
2
0
)
z(t) = exp(
t
2RC
)

_
w
2
0
+ 1
w
2
0
cos(
w
0
t
2RC
+ )
So, the frequency of the voltage response is

0
=
w
0
2RC
=
j
_
1
4R
2
C
L
2RC

CL
With a voltage controlled oscillator, basically, the applied voltage to a
varactor changes the capacitance in the circuit and hence the frequency. So
we can model the VCO as Acos(2(f
0
t +k
0
_
t
0
(v()d, where k
0
_
t
0
v()d is
the frequency of the circuit.
Note that your FM radio signal is generated by a voltage controlled os-
cillator with a scaled version of the music signal being v(t).
6
2.3 Noise in the oscillator
So what happens if there is noise in the voltage signal? Then we have
s
ref
(t) = Acos(2(f
0
t + k
0
_
t
0
(v() + n())d))
= Acos(2(f
0
t + k
0
((t) +
_
t
0
n()d)))
where (t) =
_
t
0
v()d is the desired phase and n(t) =
_
t
0
n()d) is the phase
noise.
If n(t) is Gaussian, then

n(t) is a Wiener process (Brownian motion.)
Given n(t) zero-mean AWGN noise, then
E[ n(t)] = 0
E[ n(t) n(s)] = E[
_
t
0
n()d
_
s
0
n(r)dr]
=
2
_
t
0
_
t+s
0
( r)ddr
=
2
_
min(t,s)
0
d
So R
n
(t, s) =
2
min(t, s). So the noise is non-stationary.
Also
E[ n(t)| n(t s)] = n(t s)
V ar( n(t)| n(t s)) = s
2
The variance in general for our phase noise between n( + t
0
) n(t
0
) is
k
2
0
.
How does phase noise aect the received signal? It models the inherent
jitter in the sampling due to errors in the voltage controlled oscillator.
Consider an AWGN channel, then
x(t) =
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2(
k
NT
t+ n(t))
x(nT) =
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2(
kn
N
+ n(nT))
7
=
N1

k=0
c
k
e
j2(
kn
N
+ n(nT))
DFT(x(nT)) =
1
N
N1

k=0
c
k
N1

n=0
e
j2
n(kl)
N
e
j2 n(nT)
=
1
N
N1

k=0
c
k

N(k l)

N(k l) = IDFT(e
j2 n
)
kl
Now of course

N(k 1) is a somewhat unwieldy random process.
But we can nd
E[e
j2 n(nT)
] =
1

2nT
2
_

exp(
|x|
2
2NT
2
) exp(j2k
0
x)dx
=
1

2nT
2
_

exp(
|x + jk
0
2nT
2
|
2
2nT
2
) exp(
(k
0
2nT
2
)
2
2nT
2
)
= exp((k
0
)
2
2nT
2
)
Notice that the expected value of the phase noise term is not 1! That is, the
phase noise aect does not average out!
Because the DFT is linear we can also nd the expected value of the noise
process

N:
E[

N(k l)] = E[IDFT(e
j2 n
)
kl
]
= IDFT(E[(e
j2 n
)
kl
])
=
1
N
N1

n=0
exp((k
0
)
2
2nT
2
) exp(j2n(k l)/N)
=
1
N
N1

n=0
exp(n((j2(k l)/N) (k
0
)
2
2T
2
))
=
1
N
1 exp(N((j2(k l)/N) (k
0
)
2
2T
2
))
1 exp(((j2(k l)/N) (k
0
)
2
2T
2
))
which means with non-zero phase noise, the received data is convolved with

N(k l) which has non-zero mean and values that dont go to zero when
k = l.
8
Loop
filter
x
VCO
r(t)=sin(2pi f_0 t)
re(t) = cos(2pi f_1 t)
e(t) =A sin(2pi (f_0 f_1)t)
Figure 1: PLL
If
2
= 0, the Noise function is an impulse function. The smaller,
2
, T or
k
0
the smaller the eect of the phase noise. The smaller these arguments, the
more our Noise function approaches a delta function. One way to evaluate
the dierence is to note that
IDFT(E[(e
j2 n
)
kl
]) =
1
N
N1

n=0
exp(j2n(k l)/N)
1
N
N1

n=0
(1 exp((k
0
)
2
2nT
2
) exp(j2n(k l)/N)
=
kl
+ IDFT((1 exp((k
0
)
2
2nT
2
))
So the term on the right represents the intercarrier interference as well as the
decrease in the zeroth order term due to phase noise.
Basically phase noise is one of the things that leads to sampling error.
3 Phase-locked loops
The above discussion was assuming a free-running oscillator, but in fact, we
have mechanisms to correct errors in the oscillator, e.g. a phase-locked loop.
A phase-locked loop has as input a reference frequency. A goal of the
PLL is to nd the value of that reference frequency. A voltage-controlled
oscillator is one component of the phase-locked loop.
So the phase detection is done by multiplying the two lters followed by
a lter. Why?
9
sin(2f
0
t) cos(2f
1
t) =
1
2
(sin(2(f
0
+ f
1
)t) + sin(2(f
0
f
1
)t))
After the low-pass lter, the error signal is a scaled version of sin(2(f
0
f
1
)t).
If 2(f
0
f
1
)t is small then sin(2(f
0
f
1
)t) 2(f
0
f
1
)t. If f
0
< f
1
the
input signal to the VCO is negative and the reference frequency decreases.
Otherwise it increases. So the PLL is a way for f
1
to track f
0
.
Now when you have a VCO in a PLL you have a way of controlling this
free-running oscillator, so you can minimize the drift. How about noise?
Noise comes in during the phase detection (multiplier, resistor noise, op-amp
noise, ) The loop lter damps the noise as well as how well the PLL responds
to any changes in the frequency. So a low-noise PLL will have a somewhat
sluggish response while a faster PLL may have more noise.
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2.8
2.85
2.9
2.95
3
3.05
time

a
d
j
u
s
t
e
d

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
time

S
i
n

w
a
v
e
s
Input signal
Output of VCO
Figure 2: Tracking the frequency with a 1-pole loop lter a true frequency
of 3 and a starting mismatch of 0.2 Hz. k
0
= 0.1 Loop lter is H(D) =
0.5/(1 + 0.5D)
11
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
2.5
2.55
2.6
2.65
2.7
2.75
2.8
2.85
2.9
2.95
3
time

a
d
j
u
s
t
e
d

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
Figure 3: Tracking the frequency with a 1-pole loop lter a true frequency
of 3 and a starting mismatch of 0.5 Hz. k
0
= 0.1 Loop lter is H(D) =
0.5/(1 + 0.5D)
12
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2.8
2.85
2.9
2.95
3
3.05
time

a
d
j
u
s
t
e
d

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
Figure 4: Tracking the frequency with a 1-pole loop lter a true frequency
of 3 and a starting mismatch of 0.5 Hz. k
0
= 1 Loop lter is H(D) =
0.5/(1 + 0.5D)
. Notice that the tracking phase has more jitter (no noise present) but
converges faster.
13
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2.8
2.85
2.9
2.95
3
3.05
time

a
d
j
u
s
t
e
d

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
time

p
h
a
s
e

n
o
i
s
e
Figure 5: Tracking the frequency with a 1-pole loop lter a true frequency
of 3 and a starting mismatch of 0.5 Hz. k
0
= 1 Loop lter is H(D) =
0.5/(1 + 0.5D)
. Notice that the tracking phase has more jitter but converges faster. In this
case the noise on top of the input voltage has variance 0.1.
14
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2.8
2.85
2.9
2.95
3
3.05
time

a
d
j
u
s
t
e
d

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
time

p
h
a
s
e

n
o
i
s
e
Figure 6: Tracking the frequency with a 1-pole loop lter a true frequency
of 3 and a starting mismatch of 0.5 Hz. k
0
= 1 Loop lter is H(D) =
0.5/(1 + 0.5D)
. Notice that the tracking phase has more jitter but converges faster. In this
case the noise on top of the input voltage has variance 0.1.
15