Analysis of OFDM and filter bank multicarrier with offset quadrature amplitude modulation for 5G communication: a comparative study

Abstract

Emerging applications for 5G and beyond require wireless communication systems with high spectral efficiency, low latency, reliable synchronization, and robust channel estimation techniques. This paper presents a comparative analysis between orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and filter bank multicarrier with offset quadrature amplitude modulation (FBMC/OQAM) under identical simulation conditions. The comparison is performed in terms of spectral efficiency, power spectral density (PSD), bit error rate (BER), peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), and channel estimation performance. Simulation results show that FBMC/OQAM has higher spectral efficiency and significantly reduced out-of-band (OOB) emissions than OFDM due to its superior spectral containment. Moreover, FBMC/OQAM provides better channel estimation performance in the frequency-selective multipath fading environment. On the other hand, OFDM has lower computational complexity and better PAPR performance. The obtained results highlight the performance differences between OFDM and FBMC/OQAM systems and demonstrate the potential of FBMC/OQAM as a promising waveform candidate for future wireless communication systems.