Performance Comparison of OFDM, FBMC, and UFMC for Identifying the Optimal Solution for 5G Communications

Abstract

The fifth generation (5G) wireless technology has a significant impact on individuals' lives and work, and this impact is expected to increase in the future. The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) method, which is currently used in fourth generation (4G) technology, has limitations in meeting certain criteria such as data rates and speed for the latest technology due to issues such as sideband leakages, high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), and poor spectrum utilization. Additionally, the increasing demand for Internet of Things (IoT) and user-centric processing makes the OFDM method impractical. As a result, alternative technologies are being explored to meet these needs. Filter Bank Multicarrier (FBMC) and Universal Filtered Multicarrier (UFMC) are potential candidates for 5G technology. This paper focuses on the evolution of FBMC from OFDM, and then compares the performance of FBMC and UFMC by analyzing various modulation schemes such as Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), PAPR, and Bit Error Rate (BER) through Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and Rayleigh fading channels. A theoretical BER model is also established to validate the simulated BER results. In this paper BER is analyzed in terms mathematical and simulation based approaches. To validate this simulation based method, it can be compared with the theoretical BER results to verify the accuracy of this simulation. Result portays that, the theoretical results and the simulated results are quite close through the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel.