Introduction to FDM, OFDM, OFDMA
Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)
In FDM system, signals from multiple users/transmitters are transmitted simultaneously (at the same time slot) over multiple frequencies. That is each user is assigned a different frequency for communication. Each frequency range is called as sub-carrier, n it is modulated separately by different data stream, that is there are different sources of data (users/transmitters) for each subcarrier frequency. A spacing (guard band) is placed between sub-carriers to avoid signal overlap.Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
Like FDM, OFDM also uses multiple sub-carriers but the sub-carriers are closely spaced to each other without causing interference, removing guard bands between adjacent sub-carriers. This is possible because the frequencies (sub-carriers) are orthogonal. In OFDM multiple subcarriers are modulated by single source of data. If I am a transmitter, n using OFDM technique, my data will be modulated by multiple subcarrier frequencies , instead of single carrier frequency ,as it happens in normal modulation .if I assume that 3 subcarriers are being used for modulation so, they will modulate the data of just one Transmitter ,unlike FDM where 3 frequencies will b used to modulate three different sources of data (three transmitters).
In an OFDM system, a very high rate data stream is divided into multiple parallel low rate data streams. Each smaller data stream is then mapped to individual data sub-carrier and modulated using some sorts of PSK or QAM modulation . let’s assume that I have a high rate data stream, X=[abcdefghi] ,
I divide it into three low rate data streams [p=abc, q=def, r=ghi ].Assume that there are three sub-carrier frequencies: f1,f2 n f3
Each low data rate stream will be modulated individually by each sub-carrier,that is data stream ‘p’ will be modulated by carrier f1, data stream ‘q’ by f2 n similarly data stream ‘r’ by f3 and finally all are combined.If it were FDM technique ,the data stream X would have been modulated by a single carrier frequency instead of multiple carriers.Therefor OFDM is called as multi-carrier modulation
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
Like OFDM, OFDMA employs multiple closely spaced sub-carriers, but the sub-carriers are further divided into groups of sub-carriers. Each group is named a sub-channel, different colors in figure show a different sub channel. The sub-carriers that form a sub-channel need not be adjacent. Sub-channels actually used for multiple access (multi users communication). Each sub-channel consists of multiple carrier frequencies. For instance I have two sub-channels, S1 n S2. S1 has carrier frequencies f1 ,f2,f3, and S2 has carrier frequencies, f4,f5, n f6 . sub-channel 1 will b used to entertain one user/transmitter and sub-channel 2 will b used by another user/transmitter.
Posted by Sadaf Dilshad Khan
on 05:48. Filed under
Communication Basics,
Digital Communication System,
FDM,
OFDM,
OFDMA
.
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