Affordable Evaluation of 5G Modulation Schemes in High Speed Train Scenarios

The radio access technology for railway communications is expected to migrate from GSM for Railways (GSM-R) to fourth generation (4G). Recently, considerable attention has been devoted to high-speed trains since this particular environment poses challenging problems in terms of performance simulation and measurement. In order to considerably decrease the cost and complexity of high-speed measurement campaigns, we have proposed a technique to induce effects caused by highly-time varying channels on Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signals while conducting measurements at low speeds. This technique has been proved to provide accurate results both for the cases of WiMAX and Long Term Evolution (LTE) signals. In this work, we illustrate the performance of this technique by employing the modulation techniques which are being proposed for fifth generation (5G) systems. More specifically, we compare the results of Filter Bank Multicarrier (FBMC) signals evaluated at different velocities by means of simulations and considering two prototype filters as well as the rural area and typical urban channel models standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).