Design and performance analysis of FEC schemes in OFDM communication system

Abstract

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a method of encoding digital data on multiple carrier frequencies. It has become a prevalent technique for wideband digital communication. Forward Error Correction (FEC) schemes for OFDM communication system is presented in this paper. Interleaver is a vital part in the communication system design. Matrix interleaver implementation which significantly improves the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance over other interleaver designs is proposed. Simulation and analysis of OFDM communication system is carried out with reference to IEEE 802.16 WiMAX standard. Four FEC schemes were developed from the combinations of convolutional encoding and interleaving. The BER performance analysis and comparison of four different FEC schemes are obtained. Among them, the single convolutional coding and dual interleaving performs the best under all ranges of Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).