This paper provides a comparative study on the performance of different modulation options for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in terms of their spectral efficiency, reliability, peak-to-average power ratio, power efficiency, out-of-band emission, and computational complexity. The modulation candidates are classified into two main categories based on the signal plane dimension they exploit. These categories are: 1) 2-D signal plane category including conventional OFDM with classical fixed or adaptive QAM modulation and OFDM with differential modulation, where information is conveyed in changes between two successive symbols in the same subcarrier or between two consecutive subcarriers in the same OFDM symbol and 2) 3-D signal plane category encompassing: a) index-based OFDM modulation schemes which include: i) spatial modulation OFDM, where information is sent by the indices of antennas along with conventional modulated symbols and ii) OFDM with index modulation, where the subcarriers' indices are used to send additional information; b) number-based OFDM modulation schemes which include OFDM with subcarrier number modulation, in which number of subcarriers is exploited to convey additional information; and c) shape-based OFDM modulation schemes which include OFDM with pulse superposition modulation, where the shape of pulses is introduced as a third new dimension to convey additional information. Based on the provided comparative study, the relationship and interaction between these different modulation options and the requirements of future 5G networks are discussed and explained. This paper is then concluded with some recommendations and future research directions.
A novel transmission scheme is introduced for efficient data transmission by conveying additional information bits through jointly changing the index and number of active subcarriers within each orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subblock. The proposed scheme is different from the conventional OFDM-subcarrier number modulation (OFDM-SNM) and OFDM-index modulation (OFDM-IM), in which data bits are transmitted using either number or index of active subcarriers. The proposed modulation technique offers superior spectral and energy efficiency compared to its counterparts OFDM-SNM and OFDM-IM, especially at low modulation orders such as binary phase shift keying (BPSK) that can provide high reliability and low complexity, making it suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) applications that require better spectral and energy efficiency while enjoying high reliability and low complexity. Bit error rate (BER) performance analysis is provided for the proposed scheme, and Monte Carlo simulations are presented to prove the consistency of simulated BER with the analyzed one.A. M. Jaradat is with
With the emergence of new applications (eg, extended reality [XR] and haptics), which require to be simultaneously served not just with low latency and sufficient reliability, but also with high spectral efficiency, future networks (ie, 6G and beyond) should be capable of meeting this demand by introducing new effective transmission designs. Motivated by this, a novel modulation technique termed as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with subcarrier power modulation (OFDM-SPM) is proposed for providing highly spectral-efficient data transmission with low-latency and less-complexity for future 6G wireless communication systems. OFDM-SPM utilizes the power of subcarriers in OFDM blocks as a third dimension to convey extra information bits while reducing both complexity and latency compared to conventional schemes. In this article, the concept of OFDM-SPM is introduced and its validity as a future adopted modulation technique is investigated over a wireless multipath Rayleigh fading channel. The proposed system structure is explained, an analytical expression of the bit error rate (BER) is derived, and numerical simulations of BER and throughput performances of OFDM-SPM are carried out. OFDM-SPM is found to greatly enhance the spectral efficiency where it is capable of doubling it. In addition, OFDM-SPM introduces negligible complexity to the system, does not exhibit error propagation, reduces the transmission delay, and decreases the transmission power by half.
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