Bit Error Probability for Asynchronous Channel Access with Interference Cancellation and FBMC

Abstract

Future wireless communication standards will include technologies to provide access to an increasing number of users, for example Machine-Type Communication (MTC), which is expected to interconnect billions of devices. Managing such a large number of network participants in centrally coordinated systems suffers from large controlling overhead as each device needs to be assigned resources and maintain synchronization. In this paper, we investigate systems with asynchronous channel access, in which signals are transmitted without prior resource coordination. In such uncoordinated networks, signal collisions are inevitable and pose a major challenge for system design. We present a closed-form solution for the Bit Error Probability (BEP) of colliding signals modulated with Filter Bank Multicarrier (FBMC), a modern multicarrier scheme that allows a flexible signal design. We additionally derive a solution for the BEP when Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) is applied, a scheme where successfully decoded signals are removed from a collision in order to improve decoding of other signals implicated in the collision. The results are valid for any numbers of colliding FBMC signals over a broad range of doubly-selective channel configurations. Furthermore, we provide an overview of when interference cancellation is beneficial depending on the power ratio between colliding signals and the selected channel models.