Analysis of GFDM as a Robust 5G Communication Technique in Noisy Environment

Abstract

One of the challenges of modulation techniques used in Fifth-Generation (5G) is their robustness in noisy environment. Conventional Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) cannot be considered as a 5G waveform in its original form because of its certain limitations, such as performance degradation by impulsive noise (IN) and high peak to average power ratio (PAPR). Numerous modulation schemes proposed for 5G communications are able to overcome these drawbacks. Generalised Frequency Division Multiplexing (GFDM) is one of them. This paper analyses the performance of GFDM in presence of Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), IN and Narrow Band Interference (NBI). It is found that GFDM is able to perform better than OFDM and Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM) in presence of noises, which can potentially be present in 5G applications. Simulation results show that GFDM achieve lower PAPR and Symbol Error Rate (SER) and an average of 10.73 dB and 4.73 dB gain in Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in presence of IN and combined IN and NBI respectively, as compared to OFDM and VOFDM.