Fifth generation (5G) wireless networks must meet the needs of emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), Vehicle-to-everything (V2X), Video on Demand (VoD) services, Device to Device communication (D2D) and many other bandwidth-hungry multimedia applications that connect a huge number of devices. 5G wireless networks demand better bandwidth efficiency, high data rates, low latency, and reduced spectral leakage. To meet these requirements, a suitable 5G waveform must be designed. In this work, a waveform namely Shaped Offset Quadrature Phase Shift Keying based Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (SOQPSK-OFDM) is proposed for 5G to provide bandwidth efficiency, reduced spectral leakage, and Bit Error Rate (BER). The proposed work is evaluated using a real-time Software Defined Radio (SDR) testbed-Wireless open Access Research Platform (WARP). Experimental and simulation results show that the proposed 5G waveform exhibits better BER performance and reduced Out of Band (OOB) radiation when compared with other waveforms like Offset Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (OQPSK) and Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) based OFDM and a 5G waveform candidate Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing (GFDM). BER analysis shows that the proposed SOQPSK-OFDM waveform attains a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) gain of 7.2 dB at a BER of 10 À3 , when compared with GFDM in a real-time indoor environment. An SNR gain of 8 and 6 dB is achieved by the proposed work for a BER of 10 À4 when compared with QPSK-OFDM and OQPSK-OFDM signals, respectively. A significant reduction in OOB of nearly 15 dB is achieved by the proposed work SOQPSK-OFDM when compared to 16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) mapped OFDM.