A Fair SINR Performance Comparison of FBMC/OQAM and FBMC/QAM Multicarrier Communication Systems in the Discrete-Time Framework

In the last couple of decades, multicarrier modulations have witnessed a considerable interest in wireless communication networks due to their ability to fight against multipath fading and offer multiple access with flexible resource sharing. One of the well known multicarrier modulation systems is filter-bank multi-carrier with an offset quadrature amplitude modulation (FBMC/OQAM), which was proposed as a powerful solution during the standardization of 5G. In this paper, we derive a closed-form expression of the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) for FBMC/OQAM systems in the discrete-time context, for arbitrary wide sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) channels as well as transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) waveforms. We quantify the potential gains in SINR brought by FBMC/OQAM, which exclusively operates on critical lattice density, with respect to FBMC/QAM, which have the flexibility to operate on critical or non-critical lattice densities. For completeness, we compare the performance of FBMC/OQAM in the discrete-time context, sweeping the discrete space of waveforms supports, with that of FBMC/OQAM in the continuous-time context, using the Hermite functions, and show how they perform similarly. Simulation results prove that FBMC/OQAM optimization algorithm, performing with the ping-pong optimized pulse shaping (POPS) paradigm, converges rapidly to excellent SINR values, even with small supports durations, in discrete-time context, which is equivalent to a reduced number of Hermite functions, in the continuous-time context.