Second International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology, ICETET-09

Performance of Simulink based SS-OFDM model

for Broadband Wireless Access Network
Umesh P.Akare
Digital Electronics
RCET
Bhilai, India
uakare@rediffmail.com

Sudhir B. Lande
Electronics & Tele
RCET
Bhilai ,India
landed@yahoo.co.in

Abstract Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

(OFDM) has emerged as a potential application for the
delivery of broad band wireless access. Both DS and FH
systems reduce the average power spectral density of a signal
and affects by broadband noise. Narrowband interference
impacts severely on an FH signal than a DS signal on the same
channel. The combination of OFDM with Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum (DS-SS) resulting in SS-OFDM, is suitable
for the design of a multi-user system, robust against channel
impairments. We have simulated the SS-OFDM model with
BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, 16-PSK, 64-PSK and 8-QAM, 16-QAM,
64-QAM modulation techniques. Simulation results for SSOFDM with BPSK modulation is found suitable for short
distance communication whereas 8-PSK modulation can be
used for long distance communication. But we recommend MQAM modulation for SS-OFDM since it gives remarkable
improvement in BER as compared to M-PSK.
Key words: DS-SS; M-PSK; OFD;, SS-OFDM; M-QAM

I.

INTRODUCTION

High data rate is an important goal of

telecommunications for wireless access to mobile users. The
principles of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(OFDM) modulation have been in existence for several
decades. These techniques are extensively used now in
modern communications systems. Wireless networking,
data transmission over the phone line, digital radio and
television, are some of the examples of it. Other technique
like CDMA advantages rely in remarkable robustness to
narrowband interference, multiple accesses with low power
spectrum density, so reducing EMC problems. It guarantees
good performance and satisfactory allocation policies with
low complexity receiver. On the other hand, OFDM
technique allows to greatly reduce channel equalizer'
complexity and to increase resistance to narrow-band and
impulsive noise [1]. OFDM has been combined with spread
spectrum
(SS)
techniques
to
provide
reliable
communications on frequency selective channels. For low
symbol rates, this combination is robust enough against
radio channel impairments. For high data rate applications
the technique would highly suffer from interferences. For
these reasons, the number of carriers has to be limited. An
equalization technique is necessary to keep the error rate

978-0-7695-3884-6/09 $26.00 2009 IEEE

Suresh Balpande

Laxman P.Thakre

Electronics & Tele

RCET
Bhilai,India
sbalpande@yahoo.com

Electronics &Tele.
RCET
Bhilai,India
etrcet@yahoo.com

induced by the interferences sufficiently low [2]. In case of

SS-OFDM it is observed that 1) Spreading over the entire
bandwidth mitigates the effect of spectral nulls 2) Guard
intervals are not used because the spreading of the OFDM
would lead to additional interference 3) use of cyclic prefix
eliminates inter symbol interference 4) combination of
orthogonal and pseudo-noise spreading helps to mitigate
intercell interference in cellular environment [3].There are
number of methods of spreading frequency spectrum in
spread spectrum communication systems. Basically, these
methods include Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FH-SS), Time
Hopping Spread Spectrum (TH-SS), and combinations of
these methods. Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (MB-OFDM) is a scheme of multicarrier
transmission for ultra-wideband (UWB) communication
which employs the frequency hopping technique to spread
its signal spectrum [4]. Both DS and FH systems reduce the
average power spectral density of a signal and affects by
broadband noise. Performance of both systems depends on
the particular application, the space available, power, and
complexity of the receiver. Narrowband interference
impacts severely on an FH signal than a DS signal on the
same channel. Usually DS systems uses power efficient
PSK modulation and FH systems uses less power efficient
FSK. The probability of error, for a given SNR, is better for
PSK. DS is self synchronizing but receiver synchronization
in frequency hoping is more difficult. In DS-SS, higher the
chip rate of PN code, the smaller will be the degradation due
to multipath and in FHSS if the carrier frequency of the
transmitted signal hops fast enough then only multipath
effect will be diminished [5].After studying and comparing
them we have worked upon DS-SS and OFDM system
combination. In a proposed method, each carrier is itself
spread by means of the pseudo-noise sequence. PN
sequence is multiplied with the message data effectively
spreads its bandwidth. This realizes the broad band
spectrum which can be used in wireless communication. We
have designed simulink based SS-OFDM model and tested
it with different digital modulation schemes under PSK and
QAM. We have obtained simulated results and discussed
comparative performance of the model. From this
experimentation it is found that QAM modulation is suitable

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principles of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

(OFDM) modulation have been in existence for several
decades. These techniques are extensively used now in
modern communications systems. Wireless networking, data
transmission over the phone line, digital radio and television,
are some of the examples of it. But OFDM should not be
considered for every communication system because of its
increased complexity and higher transmitter and receiver
demands. Modern digital signal processing techniques now
make it possible to use this modulation system to improve
the reliability of the communications link.

technique as compared to PSK modulation with SS-OFDM.

II.

MULTICARRIER MODULATION-OFDM

Multicarrier modulation techniques such as OFDM are

currently being implemented to keep up with the demand for
more communication capacity. OFDM is especially suitable
for high-speed communication due to its resistance to ISI.
The processing power of modern digital signal processors
has increased to a point where OFDM has become feasible
and economical. With the rapid growth of digital
communication in recent years, the need for high-speed data
transmission has been increased. As communication
systems increase their information transfer speed, the time
for each transmission necessarily becomes shorter. Since the
delay time caused by multipath remains constant, ISI
becomes a limitation in high-data rate communication.
OFDM avoids this problem by sending many low speed
transmissions simultaneously [6]. There is a precise
mathematical relation ship between the frequencies of the
carriers in the system. As long as orthogonality is
maintained, it is still possible to recover the individual
subcarriers signals despite their overlapping spectrums.
Orthogonality can be achieved by properly designing the
carrier spacing. The carrier spacing must be selected to be
equal to the reciprocal of the useful symbol period. Despite
the advantages OFDM can offer, the hardware to implement
it can still make up a sizeable and expensive portion of the
design. Two key points of an OFDM system are the Inverse
Discrete Fourier Transform at the transmitter side and the
Discrete Fourier Transform at the receiver side. By these the
robustness of the sent data over a fading multipath channel
is preserved[7] .OFDM techniques are quickly becoming a
popular method for advanced communications networks.
Advances in VLSI technology have made it possible to
efficiently implement an FFT block in hardware [8]. The Npoint DFT and IDFT are defined as
DFT { x[n]} = X [i ] 

1
N

1
IDFT { X [i]} = x[n] 
N

N 1

x[n]e

j 2 n

W
N

,0 i N 1

n =0

N 1

X [i]e
n =0

(1)
j 2 n

W
N

,0 i N 1

(2)
Where N is the number of subchannels and W is the
bandwidth in the OFDM system. One can think of the above
expression as complex data symbols mapped to complex
OFDM symbols, which make up the data symbols being sent
on different subchannels. In this way the available spectrum
is divided into several subchannels which are narrowband
and therefore experience almost flat fading during
transmission. The use of FFT technique makes OFDM
computationally more fast and efficient too. Cyclic prefix is
used to reduce the inter-symbol-interference (ISI) as well as
inter-channel-interference (ICI) which is introduced by the
multi-path channel. High data rate is an important goal of
telecommunications for wireless access to mobile users. The

III.

SPREAD SPECTRUM SCHEMES

Spread Spectrum OFDM and DS-SS has many similar

properties. The essential difference between the two systems
is in using spreading sequence. DS-SS uses a binary
spreading sequence of 1s and -ls. But the OFDM-SS
system uses a spreading waveform, consisting of a series of
samples which have non-discrete amplitude values. The
spreading waveform is just like the DS-SS spreading
sequence and has an impulse-like autocorrelation function.
This makes the OFDM signal tolerant of multipath and
interference [9].The basic form of the output signal of DSSS
is given by equation;
s(t ) = a(t )d (t ) cos(c t + )
(3)

Where a(t) is a sequence of pulses to spread the data, and

d(t) is a sequence of pulses of duration T of the digital data
[5]. If the sequence d(t) is narrowband and a(t) is wideband,
the product signal will have a spectrum nearly equal to that
of a(t) [10].Direct sequence spread spectrum use a spreading
sequence of positive and negative pulses at a very high chip
rate. In this scheme the data signal is multiplied by the
spreading sequence, and then modulated by the required
carrier frequency as shown in equation 1.From Fourier
Transform, we know that multiplication of two unrelated
signals produces a product signal whose spectrum equals
the convolution of the spectra of two individual signals .
The spread signal is to be recovered by applying a despreading sequence at the receiver. The de-spreading
sequence is just identical to the spreading sequence used at
the transmitter. The type of PN sequence used , its length,
and its chip rate, set limits on the capability of the system.
The capability can only be changed by modifying the PN
sequence on above said parameters.In DSSS, we know the
spread bandwidth is actually N times the information
bandwidth. This gives insight to another possibility to
spread the signal. The basic form of it can be seen as in
equation 2;
sm = Abm cos(2 f mt ) PTb (t mTb )
(4)

Where fm is chosen from a set of N frequencies. Therefore,

the signal hops to a new frequency for every bit[5]. The N
hopping frequencies are usually selected according to a

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periodic pseudo-random sequence like PN code. As

indicated in equation 2, the information sequence, bm, is
used to modulate the phase of the signal. This method of
spreading the signal is called frequency hopping (FH).
Equation 3 depicts a basic form for this case

Where
j 2 pt

hp (t ) = u(t )a(t ) exp(

) c( ; t )
T

(8)

Symbol denotes convolution and z(t) is the realization of

a complex white gaussian noise process[2]. The choice of
the receiver structure is a consequence of the maximum
likelihood criterion. This approach leads to the computation
of matched filter outputs, for each carrier.

Sm = ACOS (2 ( m + f m )t ) pTb (t mTb )

(5)

Here frequency m encodes the information. The two

information frequencies encoding the binary data leads to
generate total of 2N possible frequencies [5].When several
symbols are transmitted on each frequency hop, it is referred
as slow frequency hopping and if the carrier frequency
changes or hop several times during the transmission of one
symbol, it will be referred as fast frequency hopping [6].
IV.

N C 1

SPREAD SPECTRUM OFDM

n
p

u (t nT ) a (t ) exp(

p = 0 n =

n
p

(t nT ) hp ' (t n 'T )dt

(10)

The first variables ynp are thus computed by filtering the

received signal by means of a filter with an impulse
response h (t) and sampling the output at the symbol rate,
p

namely 1/T[4]. The overall system layout is presented in

Figure1. Now we will see how spreading help us to improve
the performance over noisy channel. The Shannons
capacity theorem is
C = B log(1 +

PS
)
PN

(11)

Figure 1. Scheme for SS-OFDM transmitter receiver system

j 2 pt
)
T

Shannon's channel capacity formula describes the principle

of spread spectrum system, shown in equation 11.
Where C is the channel capacity, B is the signal bandwidth,
PS the signal power and PN the noise power [4].The amount
of information that can be transmitted over a given channel
is proportional to the product of the channel bandwidth and
the time of operation . This indicates that when the signal to
noise ratio of the transmission system drops in a Gaussian
channel, the channel capacity can remain unchanged by
increasing the transmission bandwidth. Shannon's theory
also indicates that with the presence of Gaussian noise
interference, the optimum signal for reliable communication

(6)
N c 1

The equivalent received signal is given by

r (t ) =

(9)

where * stands for complex conjugation. We further define

the variables

x np1pn'' =

The combination of Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiplexing (OFDM) with Direct Sequence Spread
Spectrum (DS-SS) is favorable for multi-user system. The
combination named SS-OFDM is found robust against
channel impairments and its power spectrum density
remains constant. This system can also effectively reduce
the peak-to-average power ratio of the transmitted signal
[2]. The SS-OFDM signal characterizes by much wider
bandwidth than that of the conventional OFDM signal. It
has also the characteristics of a white noise therefore it can
realize effective ultra-wideband communication. Wideband
communication efficiently reduces the interference
problems. We can use the wide bandwidth characteristics of
the SS-OFDM signal to control the received signal
bandwidth by designing matched filters. The transmitted
bandwidth can be selected flexibly to suit for different
communication systems under different circumstances [4].
Many current efforts to develop broadband wireless
capability are now concentrating towards developing
systems, technologies, protocols, and even programming
languages. OFDM has been combined with spread spectrum
(SS) techniques to provide reliable communications on
frequency selective channel. Multipath fading is very much
influencing the performance of wireless communication
link. We introduced the spreading scheme as follows:
Random integer data is modulated by base band modulation
scheme like M-PSK and M-QAM. Then we employ
spreading to it by means of the pseudo-noise sequence. This
sequence is the same for all carriers and it is assumed to be
periodical, with period T. According to these considerations,
for BPSK used model the transmitted signal is given by
x (t ) = 2 P

y np = (t )hp (t nT )dt

h p (t nT ) + z (t )

p = 0 n =

(7)

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is the signal with the statistical characteristics of a white

noise. The power spectral density of (both sided signal) a
white noise is
( ) =

No
2

for the modulation scheme. IFFT block provides N number

of orthogonal carriers for ofdm modulation. After
multiplexing these, Cyclic prefix is then attached to the
ofdm symbol to combat the inter symbol interference.
Cyclic prefix added to the every OFDM symbol so that it
gives the periodic form to the signal transmitted by the
transmitter. Fig. 2 is illustrating the procedure to generate
SS-OFDM.

(12)

where N0 is the single-sided power spectral density. Its

autocorrelation function is
( ) =

1
2

Where

( ) =

( )e

d =

B. Design of SS-OFDM Receiver

No
( )
2
(13)

1, for =0
0, elsewhere

(14)

Autocorrelation function of a white noise is an impulse

function. The signal transmitted on the AWGN channel
should be designed so that its autocorrelation function is an
impulse function, It has been also proved theoretically that
to overcome multipath interference the optimum transmitted
signal is also a signal with the statistical characteristics of a
white noise[8].
V.

Figure 3. SS-OFDM Receiver using BPSK demodulation scheme.

The SS-OFDM transmitted signal after passing through the

AWGN channel is first demodulated by the OFDM
demodulator which is consist of Remove Cyclic Prefix,
FFT, Remove Zero Pad blocks in sequence. Cyclic prefix
which is attached to ofdm signal before transmission is to be
removed by Remove Cyclic Prefix block. Then FFT will
process the data to get the data same as that of input given to
the IFFT block in the SS-OFDM transmitter. After this one
has to remove the zero padding. Now we have to de-spread
the signal to obtain the BPSK modulated data back. BPSK
demodulator is used to demodulate this data to obtain
random integer data transmitted by the random integer
generator block. This is the process of receiving and
decoding the SS-OFDM transmitted
signal by SS-OFDM transmitter. The simulink model for
SS-OFDM receiver is shown in Fig. 3.

IMPLEMENTATION OF SS-OFDM

A. Design of SS-OFDM Transmitter

VI.
Figure 2. SS-OFDM Transmitter using BPSK modulation scheme.

We can implement SS-OFDM Transmitter using simulink

as shown in Fig. 2. Random binary data is generated by
Random Integer block. This randomly transmitted data is
then modulated by BPSK modulator. PN sequence generator
generates the spreading code. This code spreads the BPSK
modulated data effectively and then it is again modulated by
OFDM modulator. Inside the OFDM modulator we have
used zero padding, IFFT blocks and cyclic prefix blocks in
sequence. Zero padding block appends zeros to the specified
dimension if it is not available at the input of IFFT block.
Ultimately it decides the number of subcarriers to be used

SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Fig.4 shows the implementation of OFDM using M-PSK

modulation. Any number of phases may be used to construct
a PSK constellation but 8-PSK is usually the highest order
PSK constellation deployed. With more than 8 phases, the
error-rate becomes too high and there are better, though
more complex, modulations available such as quadrature
amplitude modulation (QAM). Although any number of
phases may be used, the fact that the constellation must
usually deal with binary data means that the number of
symbols is usually a power of 2, this allows an equal
number of bits-per- symbol. Fig.4 shows the
implementation of the OFDM model with the higher order
PSK modulation. We have simulated the SS-OFDM model

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10

-1

10

-2

10
BER

with selected BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, 16-PSK, 64-PSK

modulation Techniques. Simulation results for OFDM with
8-PSK is found suitable for long distance communication
link. BER for 8-PSK found rapidly falls above 25 dB SNR
for SS-OFDM. From the simulated results we can observe
that spreading makes system able to handle at more SNR
levels for higher order modulation used, meaning that higher
order

-3

10

BPSK-OFDM -spread

-4

10

QPSK-OFDM-spread
8-PSK-OFDM-spread
16-PSK-OFDM-spread
64-PSK-OFDM-spread

-5

10

10

15

20

25
SNR indB

30

35

40

45

50

Figure 6. BER performance of SS-OFDM using 2,4,8,16,64-PSK.

10

-1

10

Figure 4. SS-OFDM with MPSK modulation used.

-2

BER

10

-3

10

-4

10

16-qam-ofdm-spread-19
-5

10

64-qam-ofdm-spread-19
8-qam-ofdm-spread-19
8-qam-ofdm-spread-19

-6

10

10

20

30
Eb/N0 (dB)

40

50

Figure 7. BER performance of SS-OFDM using 8,16,64 QAM.

10

-1

10

Figure 5. SS-OFDM with QAM modulation used.

-2

modulation can not be handle at smaller distances. As

shown in simulated results one can recommend SS-OFDM
with BPSK modulation for short distance communication.
The digital modulation 4-PSK onwards will be
recommended for long distance communication. We may
select specific higher order PSK modulation over the long
distance keeping the limit of affordable SNR levels. From
the simulated results we can easily observe that as we go on
selecting the higher order PSK modulation scheme,
thepoorer BER we have to bear. Certainly there is trade-off
between the higher order PSK modulation schemes selected
and the expected BER. One has to find the saving in terms

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BER

10

-3

10

-4

10

8-psk-ofdm-spread
16-qam-ofdm-spread
64-qam-ofdm-spread
8-qam-ofdm-spread
8-qam-ofdm-spread
64-psk-ofdm-spread
16-psk-ofdm-spread

-5

10

-6

10

10

20

30
Eb/N0 (dB)

40

50

Figure 8. Comparative performance of SS-OFDM using QAM with PSK.

of SNR for the adopted PSK modulation scheme when

processed through multipath environment. As usual we may
not use the higher order PSK (more than 8-PSK) in practice
because one can expect better results with the use of range
of QAM onwards. From overall comparison it is proved
that OFDM with QAM modulation have better BER
performance than that of OFDM with M-PSK. It increases
complexity. To have perfect comparison over the range of
PSK we have simulated our model on M-PSK range.
Simulated results are shown in Fig.6. One can easily view
from the comparative study that spreading requires to be
handled on the increased level of SNR for getting lower
value of BER.
But it would give us remarkable
improvement in multipath environment. This is the point
where we can choose SS-OFDM for wireless broad band
Application. We have also tested our SS-OFDM model
shown in fig.5 with M-QAM modulation. The simulated
results are shown in fig.7 which shows the tremendous
improvement in BER performance compared with M-PSK
modulation used. For perfect comparison we can view it in
fig.8, where 8,16,64 QAM is compared with the 8,16,64
PSK modulation used for testing BER performance of SSOFDM model. From the simulation results shown in fig.8 it
is found nearly 2 db,4dB,10dB saving in SNR is obtained
for 1 bit error in 1000 and also maintains the same onwards
for lower BER when we use 8,16,64 QAM instead of
8,16,64 PSK respectively. We conclude that the use of MQAM instead of M-PSK is recommended which assures
better BER performance. After combing OFDM with DS-SS
we have found that system can be effectively handle
communication on short as well as long distances using MQAM modulation with the efficiently reduced interference,
that too with improved BER rate.
VII. CONCLUSION
Usually DS systems uses power efficient PSK
modulation and FH systems uses less power efficient FSK.
The probability of error, for a given SNR, is better for PSK.
DS is self synchronizing and receiver synchronization in
frequency hoping is more difficult. Both DS and FH
systems reduce the average power spectral density of a
signal and affects by broadband noise similarly.
Narrowband interference impacts severely on an FH signal
than a DS signal on the same channel. A concept of OFDM
modulation combined with DS-SS results in SS-OFDM.
The resulted signal characterizes by wide bandwidth
spectrum. It has statistical characteristics of a white noise. In
a proposed method, each carrier is itself spread by means of
the pseudo-noise sequence. We have simulated the SSOFDM model with selected BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, 16-PSK,

64-PSK and 8-QAM, 16-QAM, 64-QAM modulation

techniques. Simulation results for OFDM with BPSK
modulation is found suitable for short distance
communication whereas 8-PSK modulation can be used for
long distance communication. From overall comparison it is
proved that OFDM with M-QAM modulation have
comparatively better BER performance than of OFDM with
M-PSK. For testing, specifically BER performance of SSOFDM model we have used 8, 16, 64 QAM modulation and
then compared its performance with that using 8, 16, 64
PSK modulation. It is found that approximately 2 db, 4dB,
10dB saving in SNR is obtained for10-3 bit error rate and
also maintains the same onwards for lower BER when we
use 8, 16, 64 QAM instead of 8, 16, 64 PSK respectively.
We conclude that the use of M-QAM instead of M-PSK is
recommended for better BER performance of SS-OFDM
simulink based model.
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