Analysis of GFDM in generalized [formula omitted] fading channel: A simple probability density function approach for beyond 5G wireless applications

Abstract

Generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) is a flexible radio waveform which offers high degree of freedom in varying the number of time slots, number of subcarriers, and pulse shaping filters. In addition to this, it also covers orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and single carrier frequency domain equalization (SC-FDE) as corner cases. A well-known fact is that the performance of a wireless communication system is predominately effected by the characteristics of the fading environment. In this paper, symbol error rate (SER) closed-form expression of GFDM system under the generalized η−μ fading channel is derived. The proposed derivation includes Rayleigh, Nakagami-m, and Nakagami-q fading channels as special cases. A Mote-Carlo simulation test-bed is carried out using MATLAB to compare with analytical results and to validate the derived expressions based on the probability density function (PDF) approach. Further, this paper investigates the performance of the GFDM system by varying various parameters such as fading values, pulse shaping filters, roll-off factor, and modulation order. The detailed analysis suggests that the probability of SER is highly dependent on the above parameters. The results obtained are more useful in evaluating the performance of GFDM based communication system in a generalized manner.