Chapter 4

Simulation Result of OFDM and UFMC

This chapter is about comparison of modulation techniques in 5g between OFDM and UFMC.

The comparison involves simulating these modulations over different set of parameters.

The results obtained includes measurements such as spectral efficiency, BER vs SNR,

PAPR and power spectral density. The implementation is performed using MATLAB.

This chapter includes the following contributions:

Section 4.1. represent the simulation parameters considered in MATLAB code to obtain
the result.

Section 4.2. show the Power Spectral Density between two modulation.

Section 4.3. study the effect of FFT size in the performance in both modulation

Section 4.4. study the effect of bits per sub carrier in both modulation

Section 4.5. Effect of filter length in UFMC system.

4.1 System parameter
Table 4.1 shows the simulation parameter for power spectral density in section 4.2.

Table 4.1 simulation parameters for power spectral density for two modulation.
Properties values
FFTLength 512
Bits per sub carrier 4

OFDM
CyclicPerfixLenght 43

UFMC
Sub band size 20
Num sub band 8
Length of Filter 43
Side lope attenuation 40

Table 4.2 and 4.3 shows the simulation parameter for different FFT size in section 4.3.

Table 4.2 simulation parameters for FFT effect in both modulation in section
4.3.1
Properties values
FFTLength 256,512,1024
Bits per sub carrier 4

OFDM
CyclicPerfixLenght 43

UFMC
Sub band size 20
Num sub band 10
Length of Filter 43
Side lope attenuation 40
 Table 4.3 simulation parameters for FFT effect in both modulation in section 4.3.2
Properties values
FFTLength 512,1024,2048
Bits per sub carrier 4

OFDM
CyclicPerfixLenght 43

UFMC
Sub band size 20
Num sub band 10
Length of Filter 43
Side lope attenuation 40

Table 4.4 and 4.5 shows the simulation parameter for different Bits Per Sub Carrier in section 4.4

Table 4.4 simulation parameters for Bits Per Sub Carrier effect in both modulation in
section 4.4.1
Properties values
FFTLength 1024
Bits per sub carrier 2,4,6

OFDM
CyclicPerfixLenght 43

UFMC
Sub band size 20
Num sub band 10
Length of Filter 43
Side lope attenuation 40
 Table 4.5 simulation parameters for Bits Per Sub Carrier effect in both modulation in
section 4.4.2
Properties values
FFTLength 1024
Bits per sub carrier 4,6,8

OFDM
CyclicPerfixLenght 43

UFMC
Sub band size 20
Num sub band 10
Length of Filter 43
Side lope attenuation 40

Table 4.6 shows the simulation parameter for different side lope attenuation in section 4.5.

Table 4.6 simulation parameters for side lope attenuation in UFMC system in section 4.5
Properties Values
FFTLength 1024
Bits per sub carrier 4,6

OFDM
CyclicPerfixLenght 43

UFMC
Sub band size 20,40
Num sub band 10,8
Length of Filter 43
Side lope attenuation 5,20,40
Table 4.7 shows the simulation parameter for different width of subband in section 4.6.

Table 4.7 simulation parameters for width of subband in UFMC system in section 4.6
Properties Values
FFTLength 1024
Bits per sub carrier 4,6

OFDM
CyclicPerfixLenght 43

UFMC
Subband size 24,48,80
Num subband 20,10,6
Length of Filter 43
Side lope attenuation 20
4.2 Comparison of Spectral Density
The spectral density of UFMC over OFDM is compared. The simulation plots two
graphs with reference to the same respectively. The spectral density represents the strength of
the signal over a Time period (i.e) the possible bandwidth over which the bits can be sent
successfully. A modulation’s spectral density is efficient if the strength is closer to the
normalized frequency.
UFMC, 8 Subbands, 20 Subcarriers each
20

-20
PSD (dBW/Hz)

-40

-60

-80

-100
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Normalized frequency
Figure 4.1. Power spectral Density UFMC
Power Spectral Density - OFDM
20

-20
PSD (dBW/Hz)

-40

-60

-80

-100
-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Normalized frequency

Figure 4.2. Power spectral density OFDM

It can be seen from the above graph’s that the spectral density of UFMC is greater than that of
the OFDM. Thus, it is seen that the UFMC are a Better option when compared to that of the
OFDM. Thus, making UFMC a wiser option for 5G.

4.3 study the effect of FFT size

FFT size of any modulation system has a great impact on its performance. In this work, we have
examined effect of FFT size on performance of different Modulation systems as applied with
UFMC system OFDM system.

4.3.1 Effect of FFT size on PAPR

Table 4. Effect of FFT size

FFT Size 256 512 1024
PAPR for UFMC 7.5897 8.2379 8.2967
PAPR for OFDM 8.8843 8.8843 8.8843

It is clear from Table 4… that, FFT Size has a significant impact on the PAPR distribution of
UFMC signals. Hence, the PAPR increases for large values of FFT Size. This is due to the
reason that overlapping of symbols increases with increase in FFT size which results in increase
in PAPR value. Likewise, with short FFT lengths, the PAPR decreases. This holds true for all the
PAPR reduction techniques considered in this work.

4.3.2 Effect of FFT size on BER

OFDM - SNR vs BER

10 0
UFMC
OFDM

10 -1
Bit Error Rate

10 -2

5 10 15 20 25 30
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB
Figure 4.3 BER UFMC vs OFDM at 512 FFT
 OFDM - SNR vs BER
10 -1
UFMC
OFDM

Bit Error Rate

10 -2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB
Figure 4.4 BER UFMC vs OFDM at 1024 FFT

OFDM - SNR vs BER

10 -1
UFMC
OFDM
Bit Error Rate

10 -2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB

Figure 4.5 BER UFMC vs OFDM at 2048 FFT

it can see from previous figure’s that is OFDM has BER lower than UFMC but increasing in
number of FFT, realizing that the UFMC get closer to OFDM performance. It can do a tradeoff
between PAPR and BER in both modulations to have better Option modulation.
4.4 Study the Effect of Bits per Sub carrier (QAM)
Bits per sub carrier (BPS) and modulation Order are inter-related to each other. Values of 2, 4,
and 6 Bits per sub carrier results in modulation order of 4, 16, and 64 respectively. Figure below
shows effect of bits per sub carrier on different Modulation techniques.

4.4.1 Effect of Bits Per Sub Carrier on PAPR

Table 4. Effect of Bits per Sub Carriers

Bits per Sub Carriers 2 4 6
PAPR for UFMC 7.8427 8.2808 9.2456
PAPR for OFDM 8.4377 8.8843 9.9269

4.4.2 Effect of Bits Per Sub Carrier on BER

BER vs SNR
10 -1
UFMC
OFDM
Bit Error Rate

10 -2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB

Figure 4.6 BER UFMC vs OFDM with 4 Bits Per Sub Carrier
 BER vs SNR
10 0
UFMC
OFDM

10 -1
Bit Error Rate

10 -2

10 -3
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB
Figure 4.7 BER UFMC vs OFDM with 6 Bits Per Sub Carrier

BER vs SNR
10 0
UFMC
OFDM

10 -1
Bit Error Rate

10 -2

10 -3

5 10 15 20 25
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB
Figure 4.8 BER UFMC vs OFDM with 8 Bits Per Sub Carrier

Here, a comparison of conventional UFMC and OFDM signal has been done on the basis of
BER. For this comparison SNR range is taken from 0 to 25 dB and BER value of original signal
is nearly equal to 10−3 but when we apply more bits per sub carrier it starts decreasing, if we
compare these values with PAPR it is clear that higher the PAPR reduction lower the BER
performance. So, there is a tradeoff between PAPR and BER of the PAPR reduction techniques.
Obviously from previous figure OFDM has lower BER from UFMC, OFDM get closer to zero
BER before UFMC.

4.5 Filter with different side lob attenuation in UFMC System

In UFMC system, the filter for each subband is very important. It can greatly reduce the OOB
and improve the system performance. Assume that there are 1024 symbols in the UFMC system
and CP-OFDM system, among which 320 subcarriers are used for data transmission. The 320
data subcarriers are grouped into 8 subbands, each subband includes 40 subcarriers.

Figure 4.9 and Figure 4.10 are the normalized spectrum of the UFMC system and the CP-OFDM
system.

The OOB of the UFMC system is far less than the OOB of the CP-OFDM system because of the
use of filter. The power spectral density (PSD) of the out-of-band signal reduces rapidly to -60dB
in the UFMC system, while in the CP-OFDM system, the power spectral density (PSD) of the
out-of-band signal only reduces to -20dB.That fully displays the advantage of the UFMC system.

Figure 4.9 The power spectral density (PSD) of the CP-OFDM system
 Figure 4.10 The power spectral density (PSD) of the UFMC system

The stopband attenuation of the subband filter is a key parameter for the system, the larger
stopband attenuation, the less OOB of the signal, and that means the better system performance.
Meanwhile, the large stopband attenuation needs steep spectrum performance, which results in
long length filter and high complexity of the system. Therefore, to select appropriate stopband
attenuation and filter length is the only method to balance the performance and the complexity of
the system. In order to analyze the influence of the stopband attenuation to the system,
simulations are made in this project the Chebyshev filter is assumed to be used in the simulation.

Figure 4.11 is the bit error rate performance of the UFMC system with 16 QAM constellation
used.

Figure 4.12 is the bit error rate performance of the UFMC system with 64 QAM constellation
used.

It is obviously that as the side lob attenuation increasing, the system performance increases.
When the side lob attenuation is 40dB, the system performance is the best and when the side lob
attenuation is 5dB, the system performance is not so good. Considering the complexity of the
system, 20dB side lob attenuation is preferred since it can get good performance with relatively
low complexity
 SNR vs BER - UFMC
10-1
sidelope attenuation 5dB
sidelope attenuation 20dB
sidelope attenuation 40dB
Bit Error Rate

10-2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB
Figure 4.11 BER performance with different sidelope attenuation (16QAM)

Figure 4.12 BER performance with different sidelope attenuation (64QAM)

4.6 Filter with different width of subband in UFMC System

In UFMC system, the adoption of the subband greatly reduces the number of filter and the
complexity of the filter. However, the width of the subband is the factor that affect the system
performance and should be seriously designed.

Assume that there are 1024 sympols in UFMC system, among which 480 subcarriers are used for
data transmission. The 480 data subcarriers are divided into different subband with 4 schemes
that are shown in 4.7. Simulations are made with 16 QAM and 16 QAM constellation in the
Gaussian channel and numerical results are shown in figure 4.13 and figure 4.14.

SNR vs BER - UFMC

10 0
number of subbands 20
number of subbands 10
number of subbands 6

10-1
Bit Error Rate

10-2

10-3

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB

Figure 4.13 BER of UFMC system with different number of subbands (16QAM)
 SNR vs BER - UFMC
10 0
number of subbands 20
number of subbands 10
number of subbands 6

10-1
Bit Error Rate

10-2

10-3

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Signal to Noise Ratio in dB

Figure 4.13 BER of UFMC system with different number of subbands (64QAM)

As the filter in the UFMC system is very important to reduce the OOB of the system, the side lob
attenuation of the filter is studied.
Simulation results show that the system performance increases as the side lob attenuation
increasing, and 10dB or 20dB side lob attenuation is preferred considering the complexity of the
system. The performance of the UFMC system with different width of subband and different
modulation constellation is also studied in this project.
The simulation results show that the more subbands and subband filters in the UFMC system, the
better the system performance. That means subcarriers in the system should be divided into more
subbands. As the complexity is considered, the moderate schemes are recommended.