Enhanced OFDM for fragmented spectrum use

Abstract

OFDM, as a multiplexing and modulation scheme, transmits digital data on orthogonal subcarriers saving spectral bandwidth. OFDM scheme offers high level of adaptivity through spectral fragmentation. Hence, each subcarrier can be modulated and coded independently according to the channel situation and users’ requirements. Generally, advanced cognitive radio, dynamic spectrum use and fragmented coexistence scenarios consider OFDM as the first candidate technology to employ the available spectral gaps effectively. Nevertheless, OFDM scheme leaks high power sidelobes in the unused part of the spectrum. This limits the spectral use near the active subcarriers This thesis is in the context of sidelobe suppression in OFDM schemes, discussing four different suppression techniques, i.e., time domain windowing, cancellation carrier, subcarrier weighting and polynomial cancellation coding. Consequently, the four represented techniques are applied on a practical 5 MHz 3GPP LTE scenario. Finally, the required tradeoffs for each technique are evaluated. The target of this research is to properly elaborate the selected techniques for suppressing the sidelobes in contiguous and non-contiguous cases and without causing severe side effects to the OFDM model. The contributions of this thesis include improvements to the edge windowing and cancellation carrier techniques, enhancing their suppression performance and reducing their limitations.