Software simulator development for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation

Abstract

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation using varied inputs, code rates, modulation schemes and sub-carrier sizes over different fading and noisy channels were developed and tested in this thesis. The different code rates were the 1 2 , 2 3 and 3 4 whilst the different modulation schemes were Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), 16-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16- QAM) and 64-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation. The different size sub-carriers were 64, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 and 8192. The different channels were the Rayleigh fading and the Rician fading channels. These aspects of the OFDM modulation system were developed using Matlab 7.1 as code written program utilising the toolboxes available. The simulator was setup to be able to mirror all current implementations of the technology. Through the use of the simulator, a varied amount of system configurations were tested. The system arrangement that was found to be the most resilient to noise was a system using the three-quarter code rate, 64-QAM modulation and the 64 sub-carrier size.