Analysis and Mitigation of Transmitter Nonlinearity Effects on FBMC Signals

This paper investigates the performance enhancement of wireless transmitters driven by Filter Bank Multi-Carrier (FBMC) signals using digital pre-distortion (DPD) techniques. The study explores the superiority of FBMC over Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in terms of spectral efficiency and error performance. Extensive measurements are conducted on a base station transmitter, employing both memory-less and memory polynomial DPD models to analyze the impact of non-linearity and memory on FBMC and OFDM signals. Experimental results demonstrate that DPD significantly improves Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR) and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM), thereby enhancing Power Amplifier (PA) efficiency. The study provides valuable insights for designers in selecting appropriate waveforms and DPD algorithms to achieve desired performance metrics in wireless communications.