UFMC: The 5G Modulation Technique

This paper describes the aspects of Universal Filtered MultiCarrier (UFMC) system and highlights the merits of new modulation method for emerging fifth generation (5G) Wireless Communication Systems. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is an excellent choice for fourth generation (4G). 4G modulation methods suffer from the problem of high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR). Side band leakage is another problem in OFDM. Our current 4G systems rely on the OFDM waveform, which is not capable of supporting the diverse applications 5G will offer. The traffic generated by 5G is expected to have very different characteristics and requirements when compared to current wireless technology. As result other multiple access schemes are being investigated. The way to overcome the known limitations of OFDM is UFMC technique. This paper discusses PAPR and Bit Error Rate (BER) of UFMC system for various mapping schemes. Mat lab simulations show that BER values for UFMC are increasing with increase in number of bits per subcarrier. BER of UFMC system is less for 4QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) mapping method when compared to the other mapping methods but PAPR of UFMC is high when compared with OFDM. PAPR for UFMC is 8.237 and for OFDM it is 8.843 at SNR=5dB when 16QAM Mapping is used. For all other mapping methods PAPR of UFMC system is high compared to PAPR of OFDM. Therefore as a compromise between BER and PAPR of UFMC system, 16QAM mapping method is preferable for UFMC system.