About IEEE 802.16 OFDMA Modulation Analysis

89601B7RC IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. A US-based membership organisation that includes engineers, scientists, and students in electronics and related fields. The IEEE developed the 802 series wired and wireless LAN standards. Visit the IEEE at http://www.ieee.org 802.16 OFDMA Modulation Analysis adds IEEE 802.16 WirelessMAN OFDMA "Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access" modulation analysis capability to your 89600 Vector Signal Analysis application software.

89601B7RC performs modulation analysis on signals conforming to the WirelessMAN OFDMA PHY Physical Layer specification in the IEEE Std 802.16 "Part 16: Air Interface for Fixed and Mobile Broadband Wireless Access Systems" standard. For a list of supported standard 802.16 formats, see Standard.

IEEE 802.16 OFDMA is one of a family of wireless standards supporting fixed and mobile broadband wireless access (BWA broadband wireless access: Wireless access in which the connections(s) capabilities are broadband.) systems for metropolitan area networks, also referred to as WirelessMAN-OFDMA. The IEEE 802.16 OFDMA standard is an OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing: OFDM employs multiple overlapping radio frequency carriers, each operating at a carefully chosen frequency that is Orthogonal to the others, to produce a transmission scheme that supports higher bit rates due to parallel channel operation. OFDM is an alternative tranmission scheme to DSSS and FHSS. based system that supports 4 bandwidths (1.25 MHz Megahertz: A unit of frequency equal to one million hertz or cycles per second., 5MHZ, 10 MHz, and 20 MHZ) with fixed subcarrier spacing using a scalable architecture. The scalable architecture is based on a scalable subchannelization structure with variable Fast Fourier Transform (FFT Fast Fourier Transform: A mathematical operation performed on a time-domain signal to yield the individual spectral components that constitute the signal. See Spectrum.) sizes, where the FFT sizes scale with bandwidth to keep the subcarrier spacing fixed.

IEEE 802.16 OFDMA Modulation Analysis provides a very flexible and full set of demodulation properties that support OFDMA scalable parameters including: data tone modulation, frame length, nominal bandwidth, BW ratio, guard interval, and FFT size. The VSA also supports downlink and uplink subframe modulation analysis. The downlink demodulation properties include a full set of OFDMA downlink preamble signal parameters including the downlink preamble index, ID Cell, and segment parameters. The uplink analysis specifies the uplink frame number index. The VSA can be setup to measure a standard compliant signal, using standard presets, or a customized setup can be created to measure a non-standard signal. There are also advanced signal demodulation properties that give greater control of the measurement data results including pilot tracking and equalizer training compensation. For a complete list of the available demodulation properties and their descriptions, see IEEE 802.16 OFDMA Demod Properties Dialog Box.

89601B7RC measurement analysis supports single zone (permutation zone), uplink and downlink data analysis implemented through two measurement analysis modes: uniform zone analysis and data burst analysis. Uniform Zone Analysis mode performs data analysis for signals that contain a uniform zone definition, a zone defined by a single fully used data region. Enable Burst Analysis mode performs multiple-burst zone analysis. See About OFDMA Measurements.

It is also very easy to create individual map files which contain the measurement uplink and downlink zone definitions. Map files provide a useful way to repeat a measurement with the same zone definitions and to transfer zone definitions between other users or design teams. The Zone Definition editor is used to create burst mappings and set the parameters for each defined zone. All data burst characteristics (name, data tone modulation, boosting level, symbol length/offset, etc.) can be specified. When all the data bursts have been defined for the zone, save the completed zone definition to a Map File. The Map File can be recalled to repeat a measurement, edited, or transferred to other users to make similar measurements. See Using Map files.

Data analysis is supported with a full set of trace data outputs, including Time, Spectrum, IQ Meas (constellation diagrams), Error Vector Spectrum, Error Vector Time, Ch Frequency Response, Common Pilot Error, and a new IEEE 802.16 OFDMA unique trace Data Burst Info. The Data Burst Info trace data is a table of summary data for each Data Burst in the current measurement. The output data includes the data burst name, modulation format, number of slots in the burst, burst power (in dB), and EVM Error vector magnitude (EVM): A quality metric in digital communication systems. See the EVM metric in the Error Summary Table topic in each demodulator for more information on how EVM is calculated for that modulation format. (in dB).