Generalized Discrete Fourier Transform for FBMC Peak to Average Power Ratio Reduction

Filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) is a strong candidate as a waveform based technique in advanced wireless communication systems (e.g. 5G), as an alternative to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Like all multicarrier modulation techniques, FBMC suffers from high levels of a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spreading can be used in FBMC for PAPR reduction with a quite notable increase in computational complexity and without any need for side information (SI) overhead at the receiver. However, the achieved PAPR reduction is of a marginal amount, compared to the single carrier effect in the single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA). This is due to the in-phase and quadrature phase (IQ) overlapping structure between offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM) FBMC symbols. In this paper, we propose the use of generalized DFT (GDFT) spreading as an alternative to DFT spreading for PAPR reduction in systems employing FBMC. We derive the conditions at which the GDFT can totally make use of the single carrier effect of DFT spreading and hence reducing the PAPR. We also propose an enhancement algorithm that is utilized in the GDFT for further PAPR reduction without any additional complexity overhead. From the simulation results that are run at different values of subcarriers, it is shown that the GDFT spreading with the enhancement algorithm (enhanced GDFT) attain an extra amount of PAPR reduction over the other DFT spreading techniques. In addition, the GDFT spreading technique and the enhanced one also show better power spectral density (PSD) over the other DFT spreading techniques.