Performance Analysis of FBMC over OFDM for High Data Rate MIMO Configurations

The burgeoning demand of high data rate in next generation wireless communication, the antecedent of the evolution of new multicarrier modulation technique FBMC (Filter Bank Multicarrier) system is OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing). Although OFDM has numerous merits but it consumes higher bandwidth due to its cyclic prefix to eliminate ISI (Inter Symbol Interference) in fading channel and shows large PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio) in transmission system. To mitigate these problems, FBMC is more suitable candidate in high speed MIMO (multiple input multiple output) system. At first, in this paper, the responses of OFDM and FBMC system have been analyzed with AWGN and Rayleigh fading channel under theoretical and simulation environment. Besides this, Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) with reduction technique, clipping is applied to know the behavior of these systems. Finally, in the area of MIMO scheme, each system is concatenated with MRC, Alamouti STBC and Generalized STBC to find FBMC as superior contender for 5G. Results show that using 16 QAM modulation, BER performance of FBMC significantly achieves 2dB compared to error rate of OFDM in theoretical and empirical analyses under AWGN and Rayleigh channel. Moreover, the clipping technique enhances the response of FBMC in terms of PAPR compared to OFDM approximately 0.5 dB. In MIMO configurations, MRC-FBMC exhibits the improved performance with 2 dB approximately over MRC-OFDM system. Results also show that in the case of Alamouti STBC, at 30dB and 35dB, FBMC (2×1) and (2×2) configurations achieve BER improvement 5×10-4, 3×10-4 respectively than OFDM (2×1) and (2×2) configurations. Generalized STBC investigation reveals that to reach FBMC BER performance, OFDM needs at least 2dB increment at specific error rate. In a nutshell, this paper brings up three distinct types of appealing features of FBMC such as good BER response, reduced PAPR, and suitability in MIMO configuration compared to OFDM. These distinct features make FBMC an ultimate choice in the emerging areas of MIMO networks.