Performance Analysis and Optimization of DCT-Based Multicarrier System on Frequency-Selective Fading Channels

Regarded as one of the most promising transmission techniques for future wireless communications, the discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based multicarrier modulation (MCM) system employs cosine basis as orthogonal functions for real-modulated symbols multiplexing, by which the minimum orthogonal frequency spacing can be reduced by half compared with discrete Fourier transform-based one. With a time-reversed pre-filter employed at the front of the receiver, interference-free one-tap equalization is achievable for the DCT-based systems. However, due to the correlated pre-filtering operation in time domain, the signal-to-noise ratio is enhanced as a result at the output. This leads to reformulated detection criterion to compensate for such a filtering effect, rendering minimum-mean-square-error, and maximum likelihood detections applicable to the DCT-based multicarrier system. In this paper, following on the pre-filtering-based DCT-MCM model that builds in the literature work, we extend the overall system by considering both transceiver perfections and imperfections, where frequency offset, time offset, and insufficient guard sequence are included. In the presence of those imperfection errors, the DCT-MCM systems are analyzed in terms of desired signal power, inter-carrier interference, and inter-symbol interference. Thereafter, new detection algorithms based on zero forcing iterative results are proposed to mitigate the imperfection effect. Numerical results show that the theoretical analysis matches the simulation results, and the proposed iterative detection algorithms are able to improve the overall system performance significantly.