COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BER

PERFORMANCE OF DWT BASED OFDM

SYSTEM WITH CONVENTIONAL FFT BASED
OFDM SYSTEM
Miss Krupali N.Umaria
#1
, Prof. Ketki Joshi
*2

#1
krd6799@gmail.com, PG Student, SCET, Member IEEE,
*2
Assistant Prof., SCET, Surat, Member IEEE, Surat
Abstract- As the world move in to the future, there is a rising
demand for high performance, high capacity and high bit rate
wireless communication systems to integrate wide variety of
communication services such as high-speed data, video and
multimedia traffic as well as voice signals. OFDM is a multicarrier
system that provides an efficient means to handle high-speed data
streams over a multipath fading environment. In this paper,
comparison between the conventional FFT based OFDM systems
with DWT based OFDM system have been made according to some
conventional and non-conventional modulation methods over
AWGN and Rayleigh fading channel. The different wavelet
families have been used and compared with FFT based OFDM
system and found that DWT based OFDM system is better than
FFT based OFDM system with regards to the bit error rate (BER)
performance, especially when it uses conventional modulation
schemes and among all wavelet families, the bior5.5 wavelet family
is better which give less error compare to others. The results
presented in this paper are based on computer simulation
performed using MATLAB software.
Keywords- DWT, FFT, OFDM, BER, AWGN
I. INTRODUCTION
ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION
MULTIPLEXING (OFDM) is a wideband wireless digital
communication technique that is based on block modulation.
With the wireless multimedia applications becoming more
and more popular, the required bit rates are achieved due to
OFDM multicarrier transmissions. Multicarrier modulation is
commonly employed to combat channel distortion and
improve the spectral efficiency. Multicarrier Modulation
schemes divide the input data into bands upon which
modulation is performed and multiplexed into the channel at
different carrier frequencies so that information is transmitted
on each of the sub carriers, such that the sub channels are
nearly distortion less [1].

In conventional OFDM system, IFFT (Inverse Fast
Fourier Transform) and FFT [5] (Fast Fourier Transform) are
used to multiplex the signals together and decode the signal at
the receiver respectively. In this system, the Cyclic Prefix is
added before transmitting the signal to channel. But in
wavelet based transmission technique has stronger ability of
suppressing ISI and ICI than the conventional OFDM scheme
[2].
Two types of modulation schemes are used in this paper
which is Conventional and non-convention modulation
schemes. BPSK, QPSK and QAM are the parts of
conventional modulation schemes whereas Differential BPSK
and Differential QPSK are the non-conventional modulation
schemes. BPSK is the one of the simplest forms of digital
modulation. The phase of the constant amplitude carrier
signal moves between zero and 180 degree. Differential PSK
is a noncoherent form of phase shift keying which avoids the
need for a coherent reference signal at receiver. The
noncoherent receivers are easy and cheap to build, and hence
are widely used in wireless communications [10]. The QPSK
is a multilevel modulation technique; it uses 2 bits per symbol
to represent each phase. Compared to BPSK, it is more
spectrally efficient but requires more complex receiver. In
differentially-encoded QPSK (DQPSK), the phase-shifts are
0, 90, 180, -90 corresponding to data '00', '01', '11', '10'.
This kind of encoding may be demodulated in the same way
as for non-differential PSK but the phase ambiguities can be
ignored. QAM is the method of combining two amplitude
modulated signals into one channel. It may be an analog
QAM or a digital QAM. Analog QAM combines two
amplitude modulated signals using the same carrier frequency
with a 90 degree phase difference. The QAM is used in the
applications, including microwave digital radio, DVB-C and
modems. The advantage of using QAM is that it is a higher
order form of modulation and as a result it is able to carry
more bits of information per symbol [6].

A wavelet is a small piece of a wave. Where a sinusoidal
wave as is used by Fourier transforms carries on repeating
itself for infinity, a wavelet exists only within a finite domain,
and is zero-valued elsewhere. A wavelet transform involves
convolving the signal against particular instances of the
wavelet at various time scales and positions. Hence, wavelet
transform as a joint time-frequency domain. The typical
application fields of wavelets are like Astronomy, acoustics,
nuclear engineering, sub-band coding, signal and image
processing. There are some sample applications Identifying
pure frequencies, De-noising signals, Detecting
discontinuities and breakdown points, Detecting self-
similarity and Compressing images [9].
Several families of wavelets those are especially useful in
practice are like Haar wavelet, it is the first and simplest. It is
the discontinuous and resembles a step function and it is
2012 1st International Conference on Emerging Technology Trends in Electronics, Communication and Networking
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represents the same wavelet as Daubechies db1. Daubechies
invented compactly supported orthonormal wavelets making
DWT practicable. The names of Daubechies family wavelets
are written as dbN, where N is the order. Biorthogonal family
of wavelets exhibits the property of linear phase, needed for
signal reconstruction. By using two wavelets, one for
decomposition and the other for reconstruction instead of the
same single one. Reverse Biorthogonal is real wavelets to
obtain from the Biorthogonal wavelet pairs [11]. Discrete
Wavelet Transform OFDM which transforms discrete time
signal to a discrete wavelet. The DWT is used in a variety of
signal processing applications such as video compression,
internet communications compression, object recognition and
numerical analysis.

This paper is organized as follows: In section 2, describe
the FFT based OFDM system; in section 3, describe the DWT
based OFDM system; in section 4 present the simulation
parameters, results and analysis of both FFT and DWT based
OFDM system with AWGN and Rayleigh fading channel and
comparison of using conventional and non-conventional
modulation schemes in both OFDM system and finally in
section 5, a conclusion is presented to summarize the main
outcomes of this paper.
II. FFT BASED OFDM SYSTEM
The block diagram of FFT based OFDM transceiver
shown in Fig.1. The input digital data is processed by M-ary
QAM or PSK modulator to map the data with N subcarriers
that are implemented using the IFFT block [2].

Figure 1. Basic block diagram of FFT-OFDM [2]

After symbol mapping, it is necessary to convert the data
stream into parallel form where each parallel data stream
represents a sub-channel, so a serial to parallel converter is
used. IFFT block is then used to modulate this low data rate
stream that also converts the domain of the input. The output
of IFFT is the sum of the information signals in the discrete
time domain as following:

x
k
=
1
N
X
m
c
]2nknN N-1
m=0
(1)

where {xk|0 k N- 1} is a sequence in the discrete time
domain, {Xm|0 m N 1} are complex numbers in discrete
frequency domain that are obtained by application of digital
modulation methods. After applying IFFT [5] on the symbols
in all the channels, cyclic prefix is added. The addition of a
cyclic prefix to each symbol solves for both the Inter Symbol
Interference and Inter Carrier Interference. If the channel
impulse response has a known length L, then the prefix
consists simply of copying the last L-1 values from each
symbol and appending them in the same order to the front of
the symbol. Digital data is then converted to serial form and
transmitted over the channel. At the receiver side, the process
is reversed to obtain and decoded the data. The output of FFT
is the sum of the received signal in discrete frequency domain
as follows:

X
m
= x
k
c
-
]2nkm
N
N-1
k=0
(2)

After FFT, the signal is converted back to parallel form
and demodulated to yield the transmitted signal back. As
OFDM, requires a cyclic prefix to remove ISI, this causes
overhead and this overhead may be sometimes much large for
the system to be effective. The brief introduction of FFT
based OFDM shown in Fig.1. The detail of transmitter and
receiver of DWT based OFDM will show in next section.
III. DWT BASED OFDM SYSTEM
Wavelet transform is a tool for studying signals in the joint
time-frequency domains. So it is capable of providing the
time and frequency information simultaneously, hence
giving a time-frequency representation of the signal. The
use of wavelet promises to reduce the ISI and ICI without the
usage of cyclic prefix as used in FFT Based OFDM system
[8]. The transceiver of DWT based OFDM is similar to FFT
OFDM only inverse discrete wavelet transform (IDWT)
and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) replace the IFFT
and FFT of conventional FFT BASED OFDM system in
modulation and demodulation processes. The output of the
inverse discrete wavelet transform (IDWT) can be represented
as:
J(k) =
m
n
2
m
2
,
(2
k
m
- n)

n=0

m=0
(3)

Where
n
m
D are the wavelet coefficients and (t) is the
wavelet function with compressed factor m times and shifted
n times for each subcarrier (number k, 0 k N 1).The
wavelet coefficients are the representation of signals in scale
and position or time. At the receiver side, the process is
inversed. The output of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is

m
n
= J(k)2
m
2
,
(2
k
m
- n)
N-1
k=0
(4)

In the transmitter part, first data are generated in the
random binary form. The BPSK, QPSK and QAM modulation
methods are used to map the data. Then these symbols and
zeros pads are converted parallel to serial and then apply to
vector transpose. The output of this vector transpose is
considered as approximated coefficients and detailed
coefficients, respectively. This whole part is also known as
synthesis filters. Here no need to add cyclic prefix before
transmit the signal through channel. Because wavelet
transform has stronger ability to suppress the Inter Carrier
Interference and Inter Symbol Interferences.
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Figure 2. DWT Transmitter (The synthesis filters) [3]

After passing the signal through the AWGN channel, the
process is in reverse at the receiver side to recover the original
data and this part is known as analysis filters.


Figure 3. DWT Receiver (The analysis filters) [3]

The Discrete Wavelet Transform based OFDM has to
satisfy the orthonormal bases and perfect reconstruction
properties to be considered as wavelet transform [3].
According to this theory, simulation has been work. Proper
selection of parameters plays an important role in simulation.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Two transform methods FFT based OFDM system and
DWT based OFDM systems are implemented using
MATLAB and graphical results are found showing the bit
error rate probabilities of the systems. The parameters which
are used to simulate these both proposed systems are shown in
table 1.
Table 1. Parameters Selection for simulation of FFT-OFDM and DWT-
OFDM
Parameters
FFT-
OFDM
DWT-
OFDM
No. of data
subcarriers


56

56
Cyclic prefix

14 (1/4 of data
subcarriers)
0
FFT size

64 -
Pilot insertion

8 -
Total no. of
OFDM symbols

1000 1000
Wavelet -
Haar, db1, Sym4,
Coif1, Bior5.5,
Bior4.4
Modulation
Method
BPSK, DBPSK,
QPSK, DQPSK
and QAM
BPSK, DBPSK,
QPSK, DQPSK
and QAM
Channel
AWGN, Rayleigh
Fading
AWGN, Rayleigh
Fading

In this section, BER performance achieved using
MATLAB simulation of different modulation schemes
compared with FFT-OFDM and DWT-OFDM for AWGN
and Rayleigh fading channel.
A. Comparison of FFT-OFDM with DWT- OFDM system
over AWGN channel
The following Fig.4 BPSK over AWGN channel indicates
that at SNR = 4dB the BER performance is 10
-2
and at SNR=8
dB the BER performance is nearly equal to 10
-4
in DWT-
OFDM system which is less than FFT-OFDM system.


Figure 4. BER: BPSK over AWGN channel

In the case of SNR = 8 dB for DBPSK, the error of 0.0010
in FFT-OFDM, where an error of 0.0007 is obtained for
DWT-OFDM shown in Fig 5 DBPSK over AWGN channel.


Figure 5. BER: DBPSK over AWGN channel

According to Fig.6 QPSK over AWGN channel, in DWT-
OFDM, the BER performance is exactly 10
-3
at SNR = 10dB
and at SNR=12 dB it is 10
-4
which is less than FFT-OFDM
system.


Figure 6. BER: QPSK over AWGN channel

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The BER performance is exactly 10
-1
at SNR = 6dB and at
SNR=12 dB, it is nearly equal to 10
-3
in DWT-OFDM which
is less than FFT-OFDM system shown in Fig. 7 DQPSK over
AWGN channel.


Figure 7. BER: DQPSK over AWGN channel

According to Fig. 8 QAM over AWGN channel, it is
clearly shown that the BER performance is exactly 10
-4
at
SNR = 8dB in DWT-OFDM system whereas in FFT-OFDM
system the BER is more than DWT-OFDM system.


Figure 8. BER: QAM over AWGN channel

B. Comparison of modulation schemes of FFT-OFDM
system over AWGN channel
The comparison of different modulation schemes like
BPSK, DBPSK, QPSK, DQPSK and QAM of FFT-OFDM
system over AWGN channel are shown in Fig.9.

Figure 9. BER: Comparison of modulation schemes of FFT-OFDM over
AWGN channel
According to Fig.9, it summarized that as SNR is increased
BER is decreased in all the modulation schemes. But QAM
which gives better BER performance than others because
QAM is more bandwidth efficient than BPSK and other non-
conventional modulation schemes and is used to gain high
speed transmission.
C. Comparison of modulation schemes of DWT-OFDM
over AWGN channel

Fig.10 illustrates the comparison of different modulation
schemes like BPSK, DBPSK, QPSK, DQPSK and QAM of
DWT-OFDM system over AWGN channel.


Figure10. BER: Comparison of modulation schemes of DWT-OFDM
over AWGN channel

The BPSK and QAM which gives less BER performance
compared to others. So from Fig.10, it summarized that as
SNR is increased in DWT-OFDM system, the BER is
decreased in all the modulation schemes also. QAM is more
bandwidth efficient compare to BPSK. So it is used to gain
high speed transmission.

D. Comparison of FFT-OFDM with DWT-OFDM system
over Rayleigh fading channel

The BER performance is exactly 10
-4
in DWT-OFDM at
SNR=30dB whereas the same BER performance is given by
FFT-OFDM at SNR=34 dB shown in Fig.11.


Figure 11 BER: BPSK over Rayleigh Fading

The non-conventional modulation scheme DBPSK
illustrates in Fig.12. It is shown that up to SNR = 25, the
DWT-OFDM BER performance is decreased as SNR is
increased but after that it remains constant. So according to
Fig. 12, the performance is degraded in this non-conventional
modulation scheme.
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 5 10
B
E
R
SNR(dB)
BPSK
DBPSK
QPSK
DQPSK
QAM
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 10 20
B
E
R
SNR(dB)
BPSK
DBPSK
QPSK
DQPSK
QAM
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Figure 12. BER: DBPSK over Rayleigh F

The BER performance is 10
-3
in DWT-O
26dB whereas the same BER performance i
OFDM at SNR = 30 dB shown in Fig.13.

Figure 13. BER: QPSK over Rayleigh F
According to the Fig.14 it is shown that u
the DWT-OFDM BER performance is decre
increased but after that it remains constant.

Figure 14. BER: DQPSK over Rayleigh

Same as DBPSK modulation scheme, the
degraded in DQPSK modulation scheme. In
of the poor results, this technique can b
because of the following reasons: It is a diffe
so hardware implementation of receiver
complex and hence cost effective.

Fig. 15 illustrates the comparison of QAM
and DWT-OFDM over Rayleigh fading cha
performance is exactly 10
-4
in DWT-OFDM
whereas the same BER performance is given
at above SNR = 36 dB shown in Fig.15.


Fading
OFDM at SNR =
is given by FFT-

Fading
up to SNR = 30,
eased as SNR is

Fading
e performance is
spite of some
e used in OFDM
erential technique
section is less
M in FFT-OFDM
annel. The BER
M at SNR=32dB
n by FFT-OFDM
Figure 15. Comparison of QAM in FFT-O
Rayleigh fading c

E. Comparison of modulation sch
system over Rayleigh fading c

According to Fig.16, it summ
increased BER is decreased in all
But QAM which gives better BER
because QAM is more bandwidth
others and is used to gain high speed

Figure 16. BER: comparison of different
OFDM over Rayleigh fa

F. Comparison of modulation sch
system over Rayleigh fading c

Comparison of different modu
OFDM over Rayleigh fading chann

Figure 17. BER: Comparison of differen
OFDM over Rayleigh fa

The BER performance is decre
increased in conventional modu
performance is degraded in non
schemes over Rayleigh fading chann

0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 10
B
E
R
SNR(dB)
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 10
B
E
R
SNR(dB)

OFDM and DWT- OFDM over
channel
hemes of FFT-OFDM
channel
marized that as SNR is
l the modulation schemes.
R performance than others
efficient than BPSK and
d transmission.

t modulation schemes of FFT-
ading channel
hemes of DWT-OFDM
channel
ulation scheme of DWT-
el is illustrated in Fig. 17.

nt modulation scheme of DWT-
ading channel
eased when the SNR is
lation schemes. But the
n-conventional modulation
nel shown in Fig. 17.
20
BPSK
DBPSK
QPSK
DQPSK
QAM
20
BPSK
DBPSK
QPSK
DQPSK
QAM
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E. Comparison of Wavelet Families over AWGN
channel

The Haar and Daubechies are most widely used wavelet
family and they also give less bit error rate performance. But
according to the Fig.18, the bior5.5 wavelet family gives less
BER performance compare to other wavelet family.

Figure 18. Comparison of wavelet families over AWGN channel

F. Comparison of wavelet families over Rayleigh
Fading channel

From Fig.19, it is noticed that the BER performance of all the
wavelet family over Rayleigh fading channel is nearly equal.


Figure 19.Comparison of all wavelet families over Rayleigh fading
channel
As shown the wavelet families in the Fig.18 and Fig.19, it is
indicates that the Haar wavelet which is more flexible when
compared to other wavelet families. The Haar wavelet can be
categorised as an orthogonal wavelet. All Daubechies wavelet
families are also categorized as orthogonal wavelets. The
biorthogonal wavelet offers extra advantage in which that it
has symmetrical scaling and wavelet coefcients.
Biorthogonal wavelets can be constructed from orthogonal
wavelets by considering duality concept.
V. CONCLUSON
The OFDM system implemented with wavelet transform
gives better spectrum efficiency. The main disadvantage of
the conventional FFT based OFDM system is that addition of
cyclic prefix to remove ISI and ICI. In DWT based OFDM
system, IFFT and FFT have been replaced by IDWT and
DWT and Wavelet Transform maintain the orthogonality. So
no need to add cyclic prefix in DWT based OFDM system.
The BER performance of the FFT based OFDM systems
can be found over AWGN and Rayleigh fading channel using
different modulation schemes like BPSK, DBPSK, QPSK,
DQPSK and QAM. From the plots of the BER as a function
of the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), it can be concluded that
when the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is very low and does
not have any impact on the BER but if Signal to Noise Ratio
(SNR) increased the BER is reduced accordingly.
Furthermore, OFDM is a spread spectrum technology. The
Rayleigh fading channel is most applicable in OFDM
technique. From the performed simulations in both channels,
it was found that BER performance of the FFT based OFDM
system with QAM is better than others because it is more
bandwidth efficient than BPSK and other modulation schemes
and is used to gain high speed transmission in both channels.

Different wavelet families like Haar, db1, Sym2, Coif1,
Bior4.4 and Bior5.5 have been used in DWT based OFDM
system. According to their BER performance over AWGN, it
can be concluded that Bior5.5 wavelet family is better than
others because its BER performance is less than others. At
SNR = 8 dB the Bior5.5 gives 0.0001 error which is less than
other wavelet families in DWT-OFDM system over AWGN
channel. The other wavelet families are give 0.0001 at SNR =
10 or SNR = 12. In Rayleigh Fading channel, all the wavelet
family gives good BER performances specially Haar and
Daubechies wavelet family give less BER performance
compare to others. Depending on the application, the different
types of wavelet families are used.

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0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 10 20
B
E
R
SNR(dB)
haar
dB1
bior4.4
bior5.5
sym2
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
1 4 7 101316
B
E
R
SNR(dB)
haar
dB1
bior4.4
bior5.5
sym2
coif1
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