System level 5G evaluation of MIMO-GFDM in an LTE-A platform

Abstract

The 5G physical layer will support applications with different requirements, such as high data rate, ultra low power consumption and low latency. Recently, there is significant interest in the design and performance of new waveforms for 5G. One of the most important candidates is the Generalised Frequency Division Multiplexing (GFDM) waveform. The new waveform must support a smooth transition from current 4G solutions. In this paper, the performance of MIMO-GFDM with spatial multiplexing is studied in the context of LTE-A using the 3D 3GPP-ITU channel model. Additionally, results are compared with corresponding OFDM solutions. Our investigations illustrate that GFDM achieves comparable performance (Packet Error Rate (PER) and throughput), while offering additional gains such as decreased out-of-band radiation, which is a key factor for many 5G applications such as M2M and IoT.