Performance of FBMC Multiple Access for relaxed synchronization cellular networks

Relaxed synchronization and access to fragmented spectrum are considered essential for future generations of wireless networks in order to reduce physical channel signaling. Frequency Division Multiple Access for Filter Bank Multicarrier (FBMC) modulation provides promising performance without strict synchronization requirements contrary to conventional Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). In this paper, the architecture of a FBMC receiver suitable for this scenario is considered and its performance is compared against OFDM. The maximum achievable capacity of an asynchronous uplink transmission is analyzed when limited amount of feedback information on timing misalignment and power control is available. The proposed receiver architecture based on frequency domain processing combined with the fair frequency localization of the FBMC prototype filter provides an architecture that allows for more efficient multiuser asynchronous reception compared to OFDM.