C-OFDM
Coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
A COFDM system must be well adapted to the underlying channel characteristic. A basic classification of channels reveals two classes:
- OFDM for stationary channels
like many wired channels, e.g. telephone line channels or powerline channels. These channels are stationary in the term of several OFDM symbol durations, nevertheless they might change their characteristic in longer time intervals. - OFDM for variable channels
like mobile radio channels with multipath signal fading. Every transmitted OFDM symbol might encounter a different channel characteristic and must be adapted separately.
Although there are a lot of further variants of channels in each class, we are able to apply a common design process. In this design process we consider the special channel characteristics as well as other system demands like synchronization time, delay and more. This yields the best fitting selection of algorithms for synchronization, receiver/transmitter adaptation and optimization of signal code construction. The result is a highly efficient and reliable OFDM system, that is well adapted to a very special channel.
