Pulsed OFDM modulation for Ultra wideband Communications

Ebrahim Saberinia, Jun Tang, Ahmed H. Tewfik and Keshab K. Parhi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, USA
Abstract In this paper, we describe a new orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, named
Pulsed-OFDM, for ultra wideband (UWB) communications.
Pulsed-OFDM modulation uses pulsed sinusoids instead of
continuous sinusoids to send information in parallel over
different sub-carriers. Pulsating OFDM symbols spreads the
spectrum of the modulated signals in the frequency domain
leading to a spreading gain equal to the inverse of the duty
cycle of the pulsed sub-carriers. The spreading gain provided
by this system leads to an enhanced performance in multipath
fading environments. We also show that at the receiver part of
the multipath diversity can be exploited by pulsed-OFDM
system leading to a low complexity and low power
consumption transceiver structure. Easy implementation and
frequency spreading of pulsed-OFDM modulation make it a
proper modulation for UWB communications where the ratio
of bandwidth to the data rate is large but power spectral
density is limited. We design a low complexity and low power
consumption pulsed-OFDM system for the IEEE 802.15.3a
wireless personal area networks and compare it with the
normal OFDM system has been proposed for this standard.
We also provide realistic simulation results for the measured
indoor propagation channels provided by the IEEE 802.15.3a
standard to demonstrate the advantages of the pulsed OFDM
modulation for UWB communications.
1. INTRODUCTION
UWB communication systems use signal with a fractional
bandwidths that is lager than 20% of the center frequency or more
than 500 MHz [1]. UWB communication systems offer several
potential advantages. Prior research indicates that the wide
bandwidth of such systems makes them more robust to multipath
interference [2]. Recognizing the potential benefits of UWB
systems, the FCC has opened up the 3.1-10.6 GHz to indoor UWB
transmission subject to power limitations consistent with part 15 of
commissions rules [1].
Several UWB systems been proposed in the literature. Most of this
system uses single-carrier modulations of very short mono-pulses.
These systems can be divided in two different categories, namely
time modulated ultra wideband (TM-UWB) and direct sequence
phase coded UWB (DSC-UWB). TM-UWB sends low duty cycle
pulses with a large bandwidth of several GHz [2-4]. Pulse position
modulation (PPM) or pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is used
to modulate these pulses with information symbols. DSC-UWB on
the other hand uses high duty cycle pulse trains that are modulated
by pseudo random sequences to spread the signal [4-5].
Using multi-carrier modulations like orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM) for UWB communications is also studied in
last two years [6][7][8]. Since OFDM is a spectrum efficient
modulation technique that designed for band-limited systems while
UWB communication is a power limited system with very large
bandwidth, OFDM should be combined with a frequency spreading
technique to be suitable for UWB communications. Forward error
correction codes with interleaving are used with OFDM to exploit
the frequency diversity and combat with frequency selective
channels which could lead to additional complexity and latency.
In a UWB system, because of the large available bandwidth, we
can acquire the diversity gain with simple tools. In this paper we
describe another slow frequency hopping MC-UWB system with a
new OFDM scheme that uses orthogonal pulsed sinusoids instead
of continuous sinusoids that are used in normal OFDM. Pulsating
OFDM symbol spreads its spectrum in the frequency leading to a
spreading gain equal to the inverse of the duty cycle of pulse train.
The system exploits the fact that pulsed-OFDM produces
additional multipath diversity that can be easily captured using one
or more traditional OFDM receivers depending on desired
performance goals, thereby reducing or eliminating frequency
selective fading. This modulation can be used with slow frequency
hopping to achieve a low complexity high performance MC-UWB
system. In order to show the advantages of pulsed-OFDM
modulation for UWB communications in a realistic scenario, we
design a pulsed-OFDM system for the IEEE 802.15.3a wireless
personal area networks which seems to be the first commercial
system works with UWB. We describe how to design a pulsed
OFDM system with low complexity and compare its performance
and power consumption with the Multi-band OFDM system which
is the leading proposal for the IEEE 802.15.3a standard. The
simulation results show that the pulsed OFDM system outperforms
the normal OFDM system with considerable lower power
consumption and complexity which is critical to the IEEE
802.15.3a devices.
2. NON-PULSED OFDM[]
In normal OFDM modulation a block of N data symbols is
transmitted over N orthogonal sub-carriers in parallel. An OFDM
block has the following form:
0
1
2
0
( ) 0
N
j nf t
n
n
x t b e t NT
t

=
= s s
_
(1)
where
n
b
is the data symbol that is transmitted over nth sub-
carrier. If
0
1/ f NT =
, then the N sub-carriers are orthogonal in
the sense that:
( )( )
0 0
*
2 2
0
1
( ),
NT
j nf t j mf t
e e dt n m
NT
t t
o =
)
(2)
where o(n)= 1 if n= 0 and o(n) =0 otherwise. The receiver uses
this orthogonally to demodulate each sub-carrier data independent
of others.
---------------
This research was supported in part by Army Research Office under
grantn umber DA/DAAG19-01-1-0705 and NSF funding number
CCR-0313224.
V - 369 0-7803-8251-X/04/$17.00 2004 IEEE ISCAS 2004
The OFD signa can be easi y generated and demodu ated
digita y using fast Fourier transforms FFT and FFT . n a typica
OFD transcei er b oc a b oc of N data symbo s
0 1
...
T
N
b b

= b
modu ate N digita orthogona sub-carriers using
an FFT operation
-1
x = F b 3
The output of the ana og to digita con erter at the recei er is e ua
to
( )
0
L
t
m
y n h mT x n m w nT
=
= +
_
4
where h
t
t is oera channe impu se response with duration T
ch
and L is determined by the ength of channe impu se response as
ch
T
L
T
(
=
(

and w t is the fi tered additi e white Gaussian noise
A GN . uation 4 can be e pressed in the ector-matri form
as
1
= y HF b +n
5
where matri H is a Toep it channe matri .
Non-pu sed OFD systems suffer from the fre uency se ecti ity
of the fading channe s. f the channe fre uency response has a nu
or is ery sma on a sub-carrier center fre uency then the data that
was sent o er that sub-carrier cannot be reco ered. App ying
forward error correction codes and inter ea ing the coded data
before OFD modu ation e p oits fre uency di ersity to combat
with fre uency se ecti e channe s. For dense mu tipath fading
channe s hea y coding is re uired in order to achie e re iab e
communication o er a sub-carriers which add to the comp e ity
and atency of the system and decrease the o era bit rate. n the
ne t section we describe how the pu sed OFD system pro ides
additiona di ersity to combat with fre uency se ecti e channe s
without adding to the comp e ity of the system.
3. PULSED-OFDM MODULATION
The pu sed-OFD system uses orthogona pu sed sinusoids
instead of continues sinusoids as para e sub-carriers to modu ate
data. The pu sed-OFD can be generated by upsamp ing the
output of the FFT before sending it into DAC in the transmitter
The upsamp ing is done by inserting K-1 eroes between samp es
of the signa . The resu ting pu sed OFD signa is then a pu se
train with duty cyc e e ua to 1/K. e wi refer to K as the
processing gain of the pu sed-OFD system. Let
-1
x = F b be the
output of the FFT b oc . The output signa is upsamp ed to x
u
before it is fed into a DAC and passes pu se shaping fi ter channe
and recei er fi ter with o era impu se response
t
h t
. After
samp ing the output of the recei er fi ter with rate 1/T the output is
e ua to
( )
0
L
u t u u
m
y n h mT x n m n n
=
= +
_

where L is determined by the ength of the channe impu se
response as ch
T
L
T
(
=
(

. f we group the output signa into K
subgroups as fo ows
( )
'
0
L
i i i
m
y n h m x n m n n
=
= +
_
7
where
( ) ( )
i t
h m h i mK T = +
. uation 7 shows that when
we send a pu sed OFD o er a channe with ength L the recei ed
signa is e ui a ent to K norma OFD recei ed signa s on K
different channe s with ength
'
L
L
K
(
=
(

. n matri - ector form
the e uation 7 can be written as fo ow
1
0 ... 1
i i
i K

= + =
i
y HF b n
Ta ing the FFT of the ectors y
i
s diagona i es each irtua
channe and pro ides recei ed ector of the fo owing form
1
0 0
0 ... 1
0 ... 1
i i i
i i i i i
i K
diag H H f H N f

=
=
z = Db +n
D FH F

9
where H
i
f is the Fourier transform of the i
th
irtua digita
channe impu se response. The output of the FFT then is e ua to
0 ... 1.
i i i
i K = z = Db +n
10
According to e uation 10 the u sed-OFD modu ation
pro ides K di ersity branches for each data channe . This di ersity
is e ui a ent to transmission o er K irtua different channe .
Another way of presenting the additiona di ersity achie ed by the
pu sed OFD system is in fre uency domain. As is we - nown
the upsamp ing process spreads the fre uency of the signa o er a
band K times arger than the origina by repeating the origina
signa spectrum in fre uency domain. Since the signa s in the
fre uency domain are repeated K times and each fre uency
e periences different f at fading we ha e di ersity branches for
each sub-carrier.
The di ersity branches can be combined with each other to combat
the fre uency se ecti ity of the fading channe . f the distance
between the fre uencies of sub-carriers carrying the same data is
arger than the fre uency spread of the fading channe then each
di ersity branch e periences independent f at fading and the
di ersity gain is ma imi ed. The optimum way of combining
di ersity branches is ma ima ratio combining 9 . sing this
method the pu sed-OFD signa is demodu ated as
1
0
1
2
0

K
i i
i
K
i
i
d n z n
b n
d n

=
=
_
_
11
4. PULSED OFDM VERSUS NON-PULSED OFDM IN
UWB COMMUNICATIONS
n order to compare pu sed and non-pu sed OFD modu ation in a
rea istic situation we use the 02.15.3a standard physica
ayer as a framewor . The 02.15.3a high bit rate wire ess
persona area networ standard is targeting data transmission at
rates of 110 b/s o er 10 meters 220 b/s o er 4 meters and 40
b/s o er 1 meter. The eading proposa for this standard is mu ti-
band OFD system that supported by a group of companies and
uni ersities. The mu ti-band OFD system is a system that
uses norma OFD modu ation. n that proposa the who e
a ai ab e u tra wideband spectrum between 3.1-10. G is
di ided into se era sub-bands with sma er bandwidth of 52
V - 370
. n each sub-band a norma OFD modu ated signa with
N=128 sub-carriers and Q S modu ation is used. The main
difference between the mu ti-band OFD system and other
narrowband OFD systems is the way that different sub-bands are
used in the system. The transmission is not done continua y on a
sub-bands. Rather it is time mu tip e ed between different bands
band hopping in order to use a sing e hardware for
communications o er different sub-bands.
The 02.15.3a transcei ers wi be used in portab e de ices
such as camcorders CD p ayers and aptops as we as on fi ed
de ices such as TVs and des tops. The comp e ity and power
consumption of the transcei ers is therefore a ery important issue
for this standard to be successfu .
4.1. Pulsed-OFDM system for IEEE 802.15.3a WPAN
To meet these re uirements of the 02.15.3a standard the
mu ti-band OFD proposa transmits a norma OFD symbo in
each sub-band e ery 242.5 nsec. The number of sub-carriers are N
=12 and the bandwidth of each sub-band is e ua to 52 .
Con o utiona error correction codes and fre uency spreading are
used to dea with fre uency se ecti e fading channe s. Different bit
rates are achie ed by using different channe coding and fre uency
spreading rates. For 110 b/s data transmission rate a code with
rate 11/32 is used.
n order to reduce comp e ity in the design of mu ti-band pu sed-
OFD system for 02.15.3a standard we use N=32 sub-
carriers. A con o utiona error correcting code of fi ed rate e ua
to 2/3 is used for a bit rates.
oth the pu sed-OFD and non-pu sed-OFD systems ha e the
same RF front end. Thus in the ana og domain e cept for the D/A
and A/D parts the two systems ha e simi ar comp e ity and power
consumption. The transmitter and recei er structure of the pu sed-
OFD in the base band digita domain is i ustrated in Figure-2. n
the fo owing subsections we describe how to FFT and FFT b oc s
and coder and decoder b oc s.
4.1.1. FFT and IFFT modules
y reducing the number of sub-carriers on y a 32-point FFT is
re uired at the transmitter side which is much simp er than a 12 -
point FFT in the mu ti-band OFD system. t is nown that the
comp e ity of an FFT or FFT processor is proportiona to N ogN
where N is the si e of the data. At the recei er side the pu sed-
OFD re uires four 32-point FFT processors whi e the non-
pu sed-OFD system on y re uires a sing e 12 -point FFT.
owe er e en though the computationa comp e ity of four 32-
point FFT processors is sti sma er than that of a 12 -point FFT
four para e FFT structures wi occupy significant y arger area
than a sing e 12 -point FFT processor.
Fortunate y by digging into the hardware structure of the FFT
processor we ha e found that it is possib e to reduce four para e
FFT structures down to one without introducing significant e tra
comp e ities. n Figure 3 a wide y used hardware imp ementation
structure of an FFT processor is i ustrated. This structure is ca ed
radi -4 mu ti-path de ay commutator R4 DC structure. n the
figure the b oc mar ed with C4 represents a 4-input-4-output
commutator the b oc with F4 is a 4-point butterf y structure and
the symbo represents a mu tip ier. The b oc s with numbers
represent the de ay e ements in the path. One important wea ness
of the hardware structure is the ow hardware uti i ation. A of the
hardware e ements in the FFT processor such as commuters
butterf y structures and mu tip ier are on y be uti i ed 25 which
means most of the time the hardware e ements are not used.
DAC
Con o utiona
ncoder
nter ea er
Conste ation
apping
FFT
32
Sub-band hopping
e j2 tfct
nput
Data
F
LNA
sin
cos
Remo e
C
4
L F
L F
VGA
VGA
ADC
ADC
Di ersity
Combini
De inter ea er
De
Figure 2. Transmitter and recei er structure for mu ti-band u sed OFD
Figure 3. A 4-point R4 C FFT imp ementation structure 10
There e ist other more efficient imp ementations of the FFT
processor. owe er this structure is the most wide y used one due
to its regu ar and simp e contro circuits. n pu sed-OFD the ow
hardware efficiency of the structure ma es it possib e to combine
mu tip e para e FFT processors into the same structure by uti i e
time mu tip e . As stated in the 10 four para e inputs such as in
the recei er of the pu sed-OFD can be combined using
mu tip e ers and buffers into the same hardware structure. Thus
the hardware efficiency can be increased up to 100 . A of the
e ements inside the structure are fu y uti i ed. Compared with non-
pu sed-OFD which uses a sing e 12 -point FFT structure the 4-
para e 32-point FFT processor not on y has ower computationa
and hardware comp e ity but a so has higher hardware efficiency.
4.1.2. Coder-Decoder
The mu ti-band pu sed-OFD system uses con o utiona channe
coding of rate 2/3 whi e the mu ti-band OFD scheme uses codes
with rates 11/32 and 11/1 both punctured from rate 1/3 codes .
en though the coding rate of pu sed-OFD system is greater
than non-pu sed system the performance of pu sed-OFD e ceeds
non-pu sed-OFD as is shown in the ne t section. That is because
of the mu tipath di ersity achie ed by pu sed-OFD . owe er
direct imp ementation of the Viterbi decoder for the rate-2/3
systematic con o utiona code has much higher comp e ity than
that of a rate-1/3 con o ution codes. This is due to the fact that
each point in the tre is representation of a rate-1/3 con o utiona
code has on y two inputs whi e a point in the tre is representation
of a rate-2/3 con o utiona code has four inputs. The increase in the
number of inputs wi significant y increase the comp e ity of the
add-compare-se ect ACS unit. The on y choice is then to use
punctured codes. Figure-4 i ustrates the performance difference
between a systematic rate-2/3 codes and a punctured rate-2/3 code
from a rate-1/2 code in A GN channe . t can be seen that the
performance difference between the optima rate-2/3 code and the
punctured code is ess than 0.5d at a R = 10
-5
. Therefore we
choose the use of punctured codes in the mu ti-band pu sed-OFD
system for 02.15.3a.
The introduction of punctured code wi increase the c oc rate and
the power consumption of the Viterbi decoder due to the insertion
of nu symbo s. owe er as we wi see in section the decoder
V - 371
structure for the punctured code in pu sed-OFD sti has
considerab y ower power consumption than that of the non-
pu sed-OFD because of the c oc rate that they operate.
4.2. Performance
n order to compare the performance of the pu sed and non-pu sed
systems we ran a comp ete simu ation of both systems o er the
channe mode s described in the 02.15.3a channe
mode ing report. n the report C 4 are used to mode channe s at
10 meters. Figure-5 shows the resu ts of the simu ation of both the
non-pu sed and pu sed-OFD systems when operating at 110
b/s o er C 4 channe . n this figure the recei ed bit error rate
R is p otted ersus distance for both systems. The R must
be ess than 10
-5
as re uired by the standard. Figure 5 shows that
the pu sed-OFD system can operate at a range of 9.7 meters on
C -4 type channe s whi e the range of norma OFD is on y .
meters. ence we conc ude that pu sed-OFD outperforms non-
pu sed-OFD in dense mu tipath channe under identica bit rate
and bandwidth conditions.
Figure 4. erformance comparison of rate-2/3 code and punctured rate-1/2
code with the same number of states in additi e white Gaussian noise
AGN channe.
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
Distance (m)
B
E
R
Non-pulsed
Pulsed
Figure 5. it error rate ersus distance for pu sed and nun-pu sed-OFD
systems in channe C -4
4.3. Power Consumption Comparison
esides the soupier performance and ower comp e ity the pu sed-
OFD system has a big ad antage o er non-pu sed OFD in
terms of power consumption. The power consumption of a VLS
chip is determined by its c oc rate the supp y o tage and the
capacitance of the circuit and can be rough y computed with
P = C
tota
V
0
2
f 12
where C
tota
denotes the tota capacitance of the circuit V
0
is the
supp y o tage and f is the c oc fre uency. According to the
ana ysis of the pre ious sections we conc ude that the pu sed-
OFD re uires ower c oc fre uency and eads to ower power
consumption. This fact is i ustrated in Tab e-1 where the c oc
rates of different parts of transmitter and recei er are isted for both
pu sed and non-pu sed systems. Actua y due to the simp icity of
the circuits in pu sed-OFD such as FFT processors and Viterbi
decoders the C
tota
in pu sed-OFD is sma er than the one in non-
pu sed-OFD which wi ead to further reduction of the power
consumption.
Tab e 1 C oc rate in different parts of transcei er for non-pu sed and
pu sed OFD
nput
data
After Coding
with
uncturing
Output of
FFT
nput to
FFT
nput to
Decoder
Non-
pu sed
110 330 320 sps 320 sps 320 bps
u sed 110 220 0 sps 320 sps 1 0 bps
5. CONCLUSION
u sed-OFD modu ation is a simp e fre uency spreading
techni ue for mu ti-carrier systems that pro ide additiona
di ersity in the mu tipath fading channe . n the rea istic situations
i e the 02.15.3a wire ess persona area networ s using
pu sed OFD modu ation eads to a superior performance
compared to a the norma OFD system whi e the comp e ity and
power consumption of the transmitter and recei er is much ower.
R F R NC S
1 pected performance and attribute criteria appro ed for
02.15.3a A t Y Seection Criteria
http //grouper.ieee.org/groups/ 02/15/pub/2003/ an03/03031
r 02-15_TG3a- Y-Se ection-Criteria.doc
2 Summary of the app ication presentations from the Study
Group 02.15.3a ca for appications
http //grouper.ieee.org/groups/ 02/15/pub/2003/ an03/03030
r0 02-15_TG3a-Technica -Re uirements.doc
3 Anu atra et a . u ti-band OFD hysica ayer
proposa merged proposa for 02.15.3a
http //ieee 02.org/15/pub/Down oad.htm u y 2003.
4 FCC Notice of roposed Ru e aing Reision of art 15
of the Commission s Ru es Regarding tra- ideband
Transmission Systems T-Doc et 9 -153.
5 A. . Tewfi and . Saberinia igh it Rate tra-
ideband OFD , IEEE GLOBECOM 2002.
Zhendao ang Gianna is G. . ire ess mu ticarrier
communications, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine o .
17 pp. 29-4 ay 2000.
7 A. V. Oppenheim and R. Schafer Digita signa
processing rentice a 1st edition an. 1975.
eff Foerster Channe mode ing sub-committee report
fina http//ieee02.org/15 /pub/Down oad.htm No . 2002.
9 G. L. Stuber Principales of Mobaile Communications
uwer Academic ub ishers 2nd edition February 2001.
10 L. R. Rabiner and . Go d Theory and Application of Digital
Signal Processing rentice- a nc. 1975.
V - 372