This paper analyses a scenario where a Device-To-Device (D2D) pair coexists with an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based incumbent network. D2D transmitter communicates in parts of spectrum left free by cellular users, while respecting a given spectral mask. The D2D pair is misaligned in time and frequency with the cellular users. Furthermore, the D2D pair utilizes alternative waveforms to OFDM proposed for 5G. In this study, we show that it is not worth synchronising the D2D pair in time with respect to the cellular users. Indeed, the interference injected into the incumbent network has small variations with respect to time misalignment. We provide interference tables that encompass both time and frequency misalignment. We use them to analyse the maximum rate achievable by the D2D pair when it uses different waveforms. Then, we present numerical results showing what waveform should be utilized by the D2D pair according to the time-frequency resources that are not used by the incumbent network. Our results show that the delay induced by linearly convolved waveforms make them hardly applicable to short time windows, but that they dominate OFDM for long transmissions, mainly in the case where cellular users are very sensitive to interference.

Abstract-In this paper, we explore the idea that 5G will permit the use of multiple waveforms, with each service employing a waveform that is best suited for it. We look at a 5G machinetype communication (MTC) scenario consisting of clustered user equipment employing device-to-device (D2D) communication, such as a smart factory with inter-communicating machinery. The overhead associated with synchronising a large number of machine-type D2D user equipment (DUE) comes at a cost that may render synchronous communication infeasible or undesirable. Based on this motivation, we consider multiple possible combinations of prominent 5G waveform candidates for cellular users and DUEs, examining the asynchronous performance of all waveforms under consideration and using the performance of synchronous OFDM as a baseline for comparison. Specifically, we focus on the coexistence of waveforms in which the ordinary cellular users employ OFDM for synchronous communication, as in LTE, and the machine-type DUEs, operating asynchronously, employ a different waveform. When DUEs employ FBMC/OQAM, the average achieved rate is marginally greater than the synchronous OFDM baseline case, and approximately 43% greater than the asynchronous OFDM case. This result is encouraging, as the benefits of asynchronous D2D communication could be enjoyed in MTC scenarios without suffering any performance reduction compared to the synchronous OFDM scenario. We then investigate how the relative performance of different waveform choices depends on the scenario by varying key parameters. Notably, for asynchronous communication, increasing the transmit power of DUEs results in diminishing benefits unless the DUEs employ a waveform that mitigates inter-device leakage interference.

To answer the challenges put out by the next generation of wireless networks (5G), important research efforts have been undertaken during the last few years to find new waveforms that are better spectrally localized and less sensitive to asynchronism effects than the widely deployed Cyclic Prefix Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (CP-OFDM). One of the most studied schemes is OFDM-Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (OFDM/OQAM) based on the PHYDYAS filter pulse. In the recent literature, spectrum coexistence between OFDM/OQAM and CP-OFDM is commonly studied based on the Power Spectral Density (PSD) model. In this paper, we show that this approach is flawed and we show that the actual interference injected by OFDM/OQAM systems onto CP-OFDM is much higher than what is classically expected with the PSD based model in the literature. We show that though using OFDM/OQAM in secondary systems is still advantageous, it brings limited gain in the context of coexistence with incumbent CP-OFDM systems.

International audienceFuture 5G networks will serve a variety of applications that will coexist on the same spectral band and geographical area, in an uncoordinated and asynchronous manner. It is widely accepted that using cyclic prefix-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM), the waveform used by most current communication systems, will make it difficult to achieve this paradigm. Especially, CP-OFDM is not adapted for spectral coexistence because of its poor spectral localization. Therefore, it has been widely suggested to use filter bank based multi carrier (FB-MC) waveforms with enhanced spectral localization to replace CP-OFDM. Especially, FB-MC waveforms are expected to facilitate coexistence with legacy CP-OFDM based systems. However, this idea is based on the observation of the PSD of FB-MC waveforms only. In this paper, we demonstrate that this approach is flawed and show that interference between FB-MC and CP-OFDM systems should be rated on precise estimation of the error vector magnitude (EVM). Our analysis, which is confirmed through simulations on both flat and frequency selective channels and software radio implementation, shows that the interference caused by FB-MC waveforms on CP-OFDM receivers is multiple orders of magnitude higher than expected in the literature. Finally, our results show that using FB-MC waveforms does not facilitate coexistence with CP-OFDM based systems to a high extent

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is being heralded as an important part of the solution to the capacity problem in future networks, and is expected to be natively supported in 5G. Given the high network complexity and required signalling overhead associated with achieving synchronization in D2D networks, it is necessary to study asynchronous D2D communications. In this paper, we consider a scenario whereby asynchronous D2D communication underlays an OFDMA macrocell in the uplink. Motivated by the superior performance of new waveforms with increased spectral localization in the presence of frequency and time misalignments, we compare the systemlevel performance of a set-up for when D2D pairs use either OFDM or FBMC/OQAM. We first demonstrate that inter-D2D interference, resulting from misaligned communications, plays a significant role in clustered D2D topologies. We then demonstrate that the resource allocation procedure can be simplified when D2D pairs use FBMC/OQAM, since the high spectral localization of FBMC/OQAM results in negligible inter-D2D interference. Specifically, we identify that FBMC/OQAM is best suited to scenarios consisting of small, densely populated D2D clusters located near the encompassing cell's edge.