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The (Real) History of OFDM


Guest Malich

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Here’s couple of articles covering the background and development of (C)OFDM, as used in DVB-T, DAB, DRM, etc. If you’re interested in the true history - without the weird unsupported claims made by some “experts” - they’re definitely worth a read:

The History of Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing - LaSorte, Barnes, Refai (2008). Presented at the IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference “GLOBECOM” 2008.
(Download button in top right-hand corner; may require a ResearchGate login)

The History of OFDM - Weinstein (2009). Published as part of a special “History of Communications” series in IEEE Communications Magazine, November 2009.
(Direct download from author's website)

The second one is particularly interesting, as the author - Dr. Stephen B. Weinstein (bio) - was a member of the team that pioneered the application of Fast Fourier Transforms to OFDM in the 1960’s…

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Hi Digital Penetration,

what you've linked to represents a clever (many might say ingenious) practical application of fast Fourier transform COFDM technology to a local wireless network, allowing the network to operate at high speed, despite reflections in radio waves carrying the desired signals.  The speed obtained by the CSIRO was significantly higher than that achieved by other wireless network technology in use. 

The danger is to presume that this practical application of technology, developed by Doctor John O'Sullivan and his team in the CSIRO, and underpinning what we know today as wi-fi, (or earlier work by Dr O'Sullivan leading to a particular fast Fourier transform chip to facilitate radio observations in astronomy), constituted the invention of OFDM or COFDM. Such a presumption would draw a long bow. Well, it would simply not be correct.

P.S. As you may be aware, the exhibition has actually already been referred to in a recent thread: 

 

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6 minutes ago, MLXXX said:

P.S. As you may be aware, the exhibition has actually already been referred to in a recent thread: 

Nah, sorry, just saw it as a story on the (ACT) ABC news last night and thought I'd chuck it in the mix. I'm well aware that OFDM/COFDM was invented well before wifi, as were the researchers at CSIRO - I was there at RP at the time!

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