This article explains how OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) symbols and subcarriers work. It covers modulation, mapping symbols to subcarriers, subcarrier frequency spacing, IFFT synthesis, cyclic prefix, and transmission. Step 1: Modulation First, modulate the input bitstream. For example, with 16-QAM , each group of 4 bits maps to one QAM symbol. Suppose we generate a sequence of QAM symbols: s0, s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, …, s63 Step 2: Mapping Symbols to Subcarriers Assume N sub = 8 subcarriers. Each OFDM symbol in the frequency domain contains 8 QAM symbols (one per subcarrier): Mapping (example) OFDM symbol 1 → s0, s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6, s7 OFDM symbol 2 → s8, s9, s10, s11, s12, s13, s14, s15 … OFDM sym...