Analysis of an FBMC/OQAM scheme for asynchronous access in wireless communications

The OFDM/OQAM transceiver belongs to the filter-bank-based multicarrier (FBMC) family and, unlike OFDM schemes, it is particularly able to meet the requirements of the physical layer of cognitive radio networks such as high level of adjacent channel leakage ratio and asynchronous communications. The paper proposes and analyzes a new implementation structure, named frequency spreading, for the OFDM/OQAM transceiver. On flat channels, it is equivalent to the standard one in terms of input-output relations, though more complex. On multipath channels, it offers a crucial advantage in terms of equalization, which is performed in the frequency domain, leading to high performance and no additional delay. With its flexibility and level of performance, the analyzed scheme has the potential to outperform OFDM in the asynchronous access context and in cognitive radio networks.