Multicarrier Waveforms

The waveform is a core physical layer component of any wireless technology. For 5G New Radio, the 3GPP has chosen the CP-OFDM waveform from several waveform proposals. This chapter presents state-of-the-art multicarrier waveforms. Based on the design requirements for NR, the chapter provides an overall waveform comparison that has led to the down selection of CP-OFDM waveform for 5G New Radio. The multicarrier waveforms, both OFDM based and FBMC based, are compared as regards a number of key performance indicators: phase-noise robustness, baseband complexity, frequency localization, time localization, robustness to power amplifier nonlinearities, channel time selectivity, and channel frequency selectivity.