Experimental Study of a Transmission System Based on FBMC/OQAM

Introduction. This paper investigates a transmission system based on FBMC/OQAM multiplexing. This system is characterized by a high spectral efficiency, thereby attracting interest as an alternative transmission method in future wireless mobile communication standards. However, a disadvantage of the system is the high complexity of signal processing. There are numerous publications that study the FBMC/OQAM system from a theoretical perspective. This paper presents an experimental study of a transmission system based on FBMC/OQAM.Aim. Verification of a transmission system based on FBMC/OQAM multiplexing in a wireless channel.Materials and methods. Computer simulation modeling in Matlab and experimental research using Keysight and Rohde & Schwarz certified measuring instruments.Results. A model of synthesis and signal processing was developed, and a frame structure was proposed. The processing included synchronization, since the study was carried out in a wireless double-dispersive channel. Time synchronization was provided by the method of time-domain correlation. A preamble consisting of two symbols was used for CFO compensation. Channel estimation in FBMC/OQAM was conducted by pilot symbols spread over the time-frequency domain, a method with an auxiliary pilot to compensate for intrinsic interference, as well as Zero Forcing and a linear interpolator. As a result, dependences of the bit error rate on the Eb/N0 in various channels were obtained. An error rate of 10−4 was achieved under the Eb/N0 equal to 13.4 dB, 15.3 dB and 20.9 dB in the first, second and third channel, respectively.Conclusion. A FBMC/OQAM-based transmission system with a linear equalizer can operate without a cyclic prefix in a multipath wireless channel, providing comparable noise immunity to OFDM-CP. Long frames should be used to obtain greater spectral efficiency, due to the presence of a transition zone at the beginning and end of the FBMC/OQAM frame.