Design of an FPGA-based OFDM-STBC transceiver for WiMAX 802.16e standard

One of the wireless communication technologies, especially Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) is Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX). WiMAX communication system tend to use OFDM and MIMO systems in order to provide high data rates, minimizing bandwidth and fading effects. This work presents the design and implementation of OFDM with 512 subcarriers and 2×2 STBC MIMO transceiver for WiMAX 802.16e standard. The design consists of (Space Time Block Code) STBC, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT / IFFT) for subcarrier division, mapping and de-mapping symbols, and system integration using high level design tool based on VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) on FPGA. Module is targeting on a specific Kintex 7 XC7K325T-FBG900 FPGA. Since the module implemented and tested, bits are received in ideal conditions (no noise) is no error. Bit rate is attained 28,3 Mbps for operating frequency clock of FPGA 100 MHz. Refer to the WiMAX 802.16e standard which needs minimum data rate is 4 Mbps, this system can be applied. OFDM-STBC module require around 1-9 % of the available logic memory resource.