Model Architecture

The following figure shows the architecture of an OFDM Receiver. The receiver samples the input at 1.92 Msps. These samples stream into the Rx Filter. The output from the Rx Filter stream into the Frequency Estimator and the Frequency Corrector. The Frequency Estimator and the Frequency Corrector estimate and correct CFO respectively and the samples stream into the Synchronizing Sequence (SS) Detector. The output of the SS Detector is used for the time synchronization. The time synchronized samples stream into the OFDM Demodulator, which demodulates the input and generates the frequency-domain subcarriers. The Subcarrier Parser parses the channel reference subcarriers, header subcarriers, and data subcarriers. The channel reference subcarriers stream into the Channel Estimator, which estimates the channel frequency response. The Channel Equalizer uses these estimates to equalize the header and data subcarriers in the frequency domain. The Header Recovery recovers the header information using the channel-equalized header subcarriers. The CPE Estimator estimates the common phase error (CPE) in the data sub carriers that get corrected by CPE Corrector. The Data Recovery uses the header information and the CPE-corrected data subcarriers to decode the data bits.

File Structure

Two Simulink models and three MATLAB files are used to construct this example.

Receiver Interface

This figure shows the top-level model in this example.

Model Inputs:

The impairmentControl bus comprises following signals:

Model Outputs:

Structure of the Receiver

The OFDM Rx subsystem performs a set of operations in a sequence. This subsystem uses the whdlOFDMRx.slx reference model. This reference model is initialized in its Model Workspace and model's InitFcn callback using the whdlexamples.OFDMRxParameters function. The following figure shows the top-level subsystems in the reference model.

Synchronization and OFDM Demodulation

The Synchronization and OFDM Demodulation subsystem performs frequency and time synchronizations and OFDM demodulation.

The Frequency and Time Synchronization subsystem comprises Timing Adjust MATLAB function block and CFO Estimation and Correction and SS Detection subsystem.

The CFO Estimation and Correction and SS Detection subsystem comprises CFO Estimation and SS Detection subsystem and Frequency Correction Nx subsystem, which perform frequency correction for the input signal. The estimate from the CFO Estimation and SS Detection subsystem is used for frequency correction if the frequencyOffsetCorrectionType signal on the top-level model interface is set to use internally estimated frequency offset. The externalFrequencyOffset is used for frequency correction if the frequencyOffsetCorrectionType signal is set to use externally provided frequency offset.

The CFO Estimation and SS Detection subsystem comprises CFO Estimation subsystem, Start Controller MATLAB function block, Sync Signal Search subsystem, and Frequency Correction 1x subsystem that performs frequency correction on input signal.

The CFO Estimation subsystem uses the cyclic prefix correlation technique to estimate the CFO of the input signal. The CyclicPrefixCorrelator subsystem estimates one CFO value for every six OFDM symbols by averaging all the estimates in six OFDM symbols. The AngleAtMaximum subsystem selects the strongest correlation peak for every six OFDM symbols and records its phase angle. The AngleFilter subsystem implements an averaging filter to average all the recorded phase angles for a duration of 12 ms. The resulting phase angle serves as a final CFO estimate.

The Sync Signal Search subsystem implements the SS correlation. SS detection is performed by continuously cross-correlating the received signal with the SS signal in the time domain. In addition, the energy of the signal within the span of the correlator is computed on each time step and then scaled to generate a threshold. The Max Peak Searcher subsystem begins searching for the maximum correlation peak after 12 ms and searches for every 3 ms time window and records the timing offset. The Start Controller function block indicates the end of 12 ms duration to the Max Peak Searcher subsystem.

The timing offset recorded at the maximum correlation value by the Max Peak Searcher is transferred to the Timing Adjust MATLAB function block to synchronize timing.

The OFDM Demodulator block demodulates the synchronized samples and generates subcarriers.

Channel and CPE Estimation and Correction

The Channel and CPE Estimation and Correction subsystem estimates the channel frequency response, equalizes the channel, performs CPE estimation, and corrects the CPE.

The Reference Signal Parsing MATLAB function block separates the OFDM symbols reserved for computing channel estimates.

The OFDM symbols reserved for computing channel estimates are streamed through Channel Estimation subsystem. The OFDM Channel Estimator block averages the estimates from the two symbols and outputs the final channel estimates. The estimates are streamed into the Channel Equalization subsystem, which stores the estimates in a RAM and performs frequency-domain channel equalization for all the remaining OFDM symbols in the frame.

The Header and Data Parsing MATLAB function block separates the OFDM symbols corresponding to header and data symbols.

The frequency domain channel-equalized data subcarriers stream through the Common Phase Error Estimation and Correction subsystem. In the frequency estimation process, there is always a small estimation error due to the channel impairments. This estimation error results in a residual frequency offset in the channel-equalized subcarriers. This results a CPE in all the subcarriers in an OFDM symbol and changes from symbol to symbol. The CPE Estimation subsystem estimates the CPE on each OFDM symbol using the 12 pilot subcarriers. The pilots are the known subcarriers and any phase rotation in the received symbols is estimated by using the pilots. The estimates drawn from the same symbol are averaged to get the final estimate. The symbol is stored in the Symbol Buffer MATLAB function block during estimation. Once the estimate is ready, the symbol is read from this buffer block and the CPE Correction subsystem corrects the CPE in the data subcarriers with that estimate.

Header and Data Recovery

The Header and Data Recovery subsystem recovers the header information and the data bits.

The Header Recovery subsystem recovers the header information to decode data bits. The frequency domain channel-equalized header subcarriers stream into the Header Recovery subsystem. The LTE Symbol Demodulator block performs BPSK soft symbol demodulation. The Channel Coding subsystem is equipped with Viterbi Decoder block, which performs 1/2 rate viterbi decoding. The General CRC Syndrome Detector HDL Optimized block performs 8-bit CRC checksum and validates the decoded bits from the Viterbi Decoder block. The CRC syndrome detector block generates an error signal, if the CRC checksum fails.

The Data Recovery subsystem uses the header information to decode the data bits. The header information is stored in the registers. These registers are used to access the header information. The LTE Symbol Demodulator block performs soft bit BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM or 64-QAM symbol demodulation associated with the modulation type retrieved from the header information. The Channel Coding subsystem is equipped with Depuncturer and Viterbi Decoder blocks. Each code rate is assigned a predefined punctured vector pattern. Based on the code rate retrieved from the header information, the Channel Coding subsystem performs depuncturing followed by viterbi decoding. The decoded bits are streamed through the Descrambler subsystem. The General CRC Syndrome Detector HDL Optimized block performs 32-bit CRC checksum and validates the descrambled bits. The CRC syndrome detector block generates an error signal, if the CRC checksum fails.

Diagnostic Bus Formation

The Diagnostic Bus Formation subsystem creates a bus signal for some status signals of the receiver. This bus can be used to analyze the receiver when deployed onto the hardware.

The data bits are decoded in the Data Recovery subsystem and bits stream out of the receiver and are stored to workspace in the Capture Data Bits subsystem in the top-level receiver model. The Diagnostics Decoder subsystem decodes the source-coded header information and counts the number of synchronized frames, number of header CRC passes and failures, and the number of data CRC passes and failures in the bus signal formed in the Diagnostic Bus Formation subsystem. The Simulink display blocks display the Diagnostics Decoder information.

Run the Receiver

Connect the receiver back-to-back with the transmitter in the HDL OFDM Transmitter example and run the Simulink model. For more information on how to connect the transmitter and the receiver Simulink models back-to-back see the HDL OFDM MATLAB References example.

The following files describe a procedure to initialize, generate inputs, run, and verify the whdlOFDMReceiver.slx model using the whdlexamples.OFDMReceiverInit.m initialization script. You can choose a custom Tx waveform and a channel impairment of your choice from the Custom Frame Configuration section in these files.

NOTE: These files are not available on the MATLAB search path. To copy these files locally to the user path, you must open this example.

Verification and Results

The whdlexamples.OFDMRx.m script is a MATLAB floating point equivalent of the reference model whdlOFDMRx.slx. The Simulink model and MATLAB floating point equivalent script are compared in the HDL OFDM MATLAB References example.

Run the OFDMRxRealTimeSimulationDisplay.m script to run the receiver.

>> OFDMRxRealTimeSimulationDisplay

### Starting serial model reference simulation build
### Successfully updated the model reference simulation target for: whdlOFDMRx

Build Summary

Simulation targets built:

Model       Action                       Rebuild Reason                         
================================================================================
whdlOFDMRx  Code generated and compiled  whdlOFDMRx_msf.mexw64 does not exist.  

1 of 1 models built (0 models already up to date)
Build duration: 0h 7m 34.747s

 Number of header CRC failed = 0 per 4

 Number of bit errors = 0 per 15208

Run the OFDMRxFadingChannelResponseDisplay.m script to run the receiver.

>> OFDMRxFadingChannelResponseDisplay

### Starting serial model reference simulation build

Build Summary

0 of 1 models built (1 models already up to date)
Build duration: 0h 2m 44.917s

 Number of header CRC failed = 0 per 1

 Number of bit errors = 0 per 3162

You can see the constellation plot on the constellation scope. The scopes can be activated by using the Control Scope button in the whdlOFDMReceiver.slx model.

HDL Code Generation

To generate the HDL code for this example, you must have HDL Coder™. Use makehdl and makehdltb commands to generate HDL code and HDL testbench for the OFDM Rx subsystem. The testbench generation time depends on the simulation time.

The resulting HDL code is synthesized for a Xilinx® Zynq®-7000 ZC706 evaluation board. The post place and route resource utilization and are shown in the table below. The maximum frequency of operation is 192 MHz.

       Resources       Usage
    _______________    _____

    Slice Registers    45122
    Slice LUT          36246
    RAMB36             8    
    RAMB18             9    
    DSP48              95