FPGA-based implementation of a frequency spreading FBMC-OQAM baseband modulator

Filter-bank Multicarrier (FBMC) modulation has been proposed as a 5G waveform candidate due to its better spectral efficiency and lower out-of-band emissions compared to OFDM. This paper presents an FPGA-based implementation of a Frequency Spreading FBMC-OQAM baseband modulator and evaluates it in terms of performance, resource utilization and power consumption. The proposed system is then compared with published Polyphase Network (PPN) FBMC-OQAM designs, focusing on resource utilization. The results suggest that the higher computational complexity of FS-FBMC systems does not directly result in higher resource utilization, which makes FS-FBMC a convenient scheme for implementing FBMC designs on FPGA.