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Glossary

OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

Published 2026-10-16Updated 2026-10-16

At a glance

Term
OFDM
Stands for
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 36.201, TS 36.300, TS 38.300

In plain words

TS 36.201 uses OFDM as the basis for LTE physical-layer multiple access in the downlink, with cyclic-prefix SC-FDMA for uplink and sidelink. TS 36.300 identifies a basic transmission scheme based on OFDM, while TS 38.300 describes the downlink waveform as "conventional OFDM using a Cyclic Prefix".

Source: 3GPP TS 38.300 V19.4.0, clause 5.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.300/38300-j40.zip

Sources

  1. 3GPP TS 36.201 V19.0.0, clause 4.2.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.201/36201-j00.zip
  2. 3GPP TS 36.300 V15.14.0, clause 5.1.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/36_series/36.300/36300-fe0.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 38.300 V19.4.0, clause 5.1. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/38_series/38.300/38300-j40.zip
  4. 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip

How this page was made

The facts box comes straight from the 3GPP TDoc list and specification archive as indexed by 3GPP Scout. An AI model (GPT-6 Luna) wrote the paragraph and named the source of each sentence. Code checked every quote word for word against the stored source text and every number against the cited source. A second AI model from another company (Claude Opus 5.5) reviewed the paragraph against the same sources. The 3GPP documents themselves govern.