Optimal filter length and zero padding length design for Universal Filtered Multi-carrier (UFMC) system

Universal filtered multi-carrier (UFMC) systems offer flexibility of filtering arbitrary number of subcarriers to suppress out of band emission while keeping the orthogonality between subcarriers and robustness to transceiver imperfections. Such properties enable it as a promising candidate waveform for the Internet of Things communications. However, subband filtering may affect system performance and capacity in a number of ways. In this paper, we first propose the conditions for interference-free one-tap equalization and corresponding signal model in the frequency domain for the UFMC system. The impact of subband filtering on the system performance is analyzed in terms of average signal-to-noise ratio, capacity and bit error rate (BER), and compared with the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system. This is followed by filter length selection strategies to provide guidelines for system design. Next, by taking carrier frequency offset, timing offset, insufficient guard interval between symbols, and filter tail cutting (TC) into consideration, an analytical system model is established. In addition, a set of optimization criteria in terms of filter length and guard interval/filter TC length subject to various constraints is formulated to maximize the system capacity. The numerical results show that the analytical and corresponding optimal approaches match the simulation results, and the proposed equalization algorithms can significantly improve the BER performance