Low-latency MISO FBMC-OQAM: It works for millimeter waves!

A key enabler for high data rates in future wireless systems will be the usage of millimeter Waves (mmWaves). Furthermore, Filter Bank Multi-Carrier (FBMC) with its good spectral properties has also been considered as a possible future transmission technique. However, many authors claim that multiple antennas and low-latency transmissions, two of the key requirements in 5G, cannot be efficiently supported by FBMC. This is not true in general, as we will show in this paper. We investigate FBMC transmissions over real world channels at 60 GHz and show that Alamouti's space time block code works perfectly fine once we spread (code) symbols in time. Although it is true that spreading increases the transmission time, the overall transmission time is still very low due to the high subcarrier spacing employed in mmWaves. Therefore, coded FBMC in combination with mmWaves enables high spectral efficiency, low-latency and allows the straightforward usage of multiple antennas.