Linear GFDM: A Low Out-of-band Emission Configuration for 5G Air Interface

Abstract

This paper explores the flexibility of generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) for achieving the same performance as filter bank multicarrier (FBMC). We present a GFDM configuration where the good spectral containment of FBMC is also achieved through a modification in the GFDM transmission scheme. For evaluating the scheme’s performance, we estimate the bit error ratio (BER) under three channel models: i) pure additive Gaussian AWGN; ii) time-invariant frequency-selective; iii) time-variant frequency-selective (doubly dispersive). The spectral containment is measured through the power spectral density. Furthermore, the complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) of the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is also estimated. The Linear GFDM waveform shows identical performance when compared to FBMC in the above test scenarios.