Alternative Methods to Zero Padding

1. How do you zero a padding?
2. What is the purpose of using zero padding before the Ifft stage in OFDM?
3. Does zero padding improve FFT resolution?
4. Does zero padding affect FFT?

How do you zero a padding?

In zero padding, you add zeros to the end of the input sequence so that the total number of samples is equal to the next higher power of two. For example, if you have 10 samples of a signal, you can add six zeros to make the total number of samples equal to 16, or 32, which is a power of two.

What is the purpose of using zero padding before the Ifft stage in OFDM?

The zero padding is there to minimize the effect of multipath. Short explanation: over the air signal gets convoluted with channel response, this blurs the signal and redistribute its energy through a wider frequency range than the original.

Does zero padding improve FFT resolution?

Zero padding enables you to obtain more accurate amplitude estimates of resolvable signal components. On the other hand, zero padding does not improve the spectral (frequency) resolution of the DFT. The resolution is determined by the number of samples and the sample rate.

Does zero padding affect FFT?

Zero padding allows one to use a longer FFT, which will produce a longer FFT result vector. A longer FFT result has more frequency bins that are more closely spaced in frequency.