Waveform Design for 5G and Beyond

5G is envisioned to improve major key performance indicators (KPIs), such as peak data rate, spectral efficiency, power consumption, complexity, connection density, latency, and mobility. This chapter aims to provide a complete picture of the ongoing 5G waveform discussions and overviews the major candidates. It provides a brief description of the waveform and reveals the 5G use cases and waveform design requirements. The chapter presents the main features of cyclic prefix-orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) that is deployed in 4G LTE systems. CP-OFDM is the baseline of the 5G waveform discussions since the performance of a new waveform is usually compared with it. The chapter examines the essential characteristics of the major waveform candidates along with the related advantages and disadvantages. It summarizes and compares the key features of different waveforms.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, 2 tables; accepted version (The URL for the final version: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119333142.ch2

Mixed numerologies interference analysis and inter-numerology interference cancellation for windowed OFDM systems

Extremely diverse service requirements are one of the critical challenges for the upcoming fifth-generation (5G) radio access technologies. As a solution, mixed numerologies transmission is proposed as a new radio air interface by assigning different numerologies to different subbands. However, coexistence of multiple numerologies induces the inter-numerology interference (INI), which deteriorates the system performance. In this paper, a theoretical model for INI is established for windowed orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (W-OFDM) systems. The analytical expression of the INI power is derived as a function of the channel frequency response of interfering subcarrier, the spectral distance separating the aggressor and the victim subcarrier, and the overlapping windows generated by the interferer's transmitter windows and the victim's receiver window. Based on the derived INI power expression, a novel INI cancellation scheme is proposed by dividing the INI into a dominant deterministic part and an equivalent noise part. A soft-output ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC) algorithm is proposed to cancel the dominant interference, and the residual interference power is utilized as effective noise variance for the calculation of log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) for bits. Numerical analysis shows that the INI theoretical model matches the simulated results, and the proposed interference cancellation algorithm effectively mitigates the INI and outperforms the state-of-the-art W-OFDM receiver algorithms

Efficient Fast-Convolution-Based Waveform Processing for 5G Physical Layer

This paper investigates the application of fast-convolution (FC) filtering schemes for flexible and effective waveform generation and processing in the fifth generation (5G) systems. FC-based filtering is presented as a generic multimode waveform processing engine while, following the progress of 5G new radio standardization in the Third-Generation Partnership Project, the main focus is on efficient generation and processing of subband-filtered cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) signals. First, a matrix model for analyzing FC filter processing responses is presented and used for designing optimized multiplexing of filtered groups of CP-OFDM physical resource blocks (PRBs) in a spectrally well-localized manner, i.e., with narrow guardbands. Subband filtering is able to suppress interference leakage between adjacent subbands, thus supporting independent waveform parametrization and different numerologies for different groups of PRBs, as well as asynchronous multiuser operation in uplink. These are central ingredients in the 5G waveform developments, particularly at sub-6-GHz bands. The FC filter optimization criterion is passband error vector magnitude minimization subject to a given subband band-limitation constraint. Optimized designs with different guardband widths, PRB group sizes, and essential design parameters are compared in terms of interference levels and implementation complexity. Finally, extensive coded 5G radio link simulation results are presented to compare the proposed approach with other subband-filtered CP-OFDM schemes and time-domain windowing methods, considering cases with different numerologies or asynchronous transmissions in adjacent subbands. Also the feasibility of using independent transmitter and receiver processing for CP-OFDM spectrum control is demonstrated

Generalized Fast-Convolution-based Filtered-OFDM: Techniques and Application to 5G New Radio

This paper proposes a generalized model and methods for fast-convolution (FC)-based waveform generation and processing with specific applications to fifth generation new radio (5G-NR). Following the progress of 5G-NR standardization in 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), the main focus is on subband-filtered cyclic prefix (CP) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) processing with specific emphasis on spectrally well localized transmitter processing. Subband filtering is able to suppress the interference leakage between adjacent subbands, thus supporting different numerologies for so-called bandwidth parts as well as asynchronous multiple access. The proposed generalized FC scheme effectively combines overlapped block processing with time- and frequency-domain windowing to provide highly selective subband filtering with very low intrinsic interference level. Jointly optimized multi-window designs with different allocation sizes and design parameters are compared in terms of interference levels and implementation complexity. The proposed methods are shown to clearly outperform the existing state-of-the-art windowing and filtering-based methods.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Extended GFDM Framework: OTFS and GFDM Comparison

Orthogonal time frequency space modulation (OTFS) has been recently proposed to achieve time and frequency diversity, especially in linear time-variant (LTV) channels with large Doppler frequencies. The idea is based on the precoding of the data symbols using symplectic finite Fourier transform (SFFT) then transmitting them by mean of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform. Consequently, the demodulator and channel equalization can be coupled in one processing step. As a distinguished feature, the demodulated data symbols have roughly equal gain independent of the channel selectivity. On the other hand, generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) modulation also employs the spreading over the time and frequency domains using circular filtering. Accordingly, the data symbols are implicitly precoded in a similar way as applying SFFT in OTFS. In this paper, we present an extended representation of GFDM which shows that OTFS can be processed as a GFDM signal with simple permutation. Nevertheless, this permutation is the key factor behind the outstanding performance of OTFS in LTV channels, as demonstrated in this work. Furthermore, the representation of OTFS in the GFDM framework provides an efficient implementation, that has been intensively investigated for GFDM, and facilitates the understanding of the OTFS distinct features.Comment: Accepted in IEEE Global Communications Conference 9-13 December 2018 Abu Dhabi, UA

A Comparison of CP-OFDM, PCC-OFDM and UFMC for 5G Uplink Communications

Polynomial-cancellation-coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (PCC-OFDM) is a form of OFDM that has waveforms which are very well localized in both the time and frequency domains and so it is ideally suited for use in the 5G network. This paper analyzes the performance of PCC-OFDM in the uplink of a multiuser system using orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and compares it with conventional cyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM), and universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC). PCC-OFDM is shown to be much less sensitive than either CP-OFDM or UFMC to time and frequency offsets. For a given constellation size, PCC-OFDM in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) requires 3dB lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a given bit-error-rate, and the SNR advantage of PCC-OFDM increases rapidly when there are timing and/or frequency offsets. For PCC-OFDM no frequency guard band is required between different OFDMA users. PCC-OFDM is completely compatible with CP-OFDM and adds negligible complexity and latency, as it uses a simple mapping of data onto pairs of subcarriers at the transmitter, and a simple weighting-and-adding of pairs of subcarriers at the receiver. The weighting and adding step, which has been omitted in some of the literature, is shown to contribute substantially to the SNR advantage of PCC-OFDM. A disadvantage of PCC-OFDM (without overlapping) is the potential reduction in spectral efficiency because subcarriers are modulated in pairs, but this reduction is more than regained because no guard band or cyclic prefix is required and because, for a given channel, larger constellations can be used