5GNOW: non-orthogonal, asynchronous waveforms for future mobile applications

TLDR

The rise of the Internet of Things and the limitations of LTE’s strict synchronism and orthogonality create a need for a fundamental redesign of wireless systems. The study proposes new PHY layer components—including a unified frame structure, filtered multicarrier waveforms, sparse signal processing, a robustness framework, and ultra‑low‑latency transmissions—to challenge LTE’s synchronism and orthogonality paradigm. The authors identify 5G drivers and develop these PHY layer components to support the transition to future mobile networks. The 5GNOW project demonstrates that the proposed components enable an efficient, scalable air interface that meets the diverse requirements of 5G.

Abstract

This article provides some fundamental indications about wireless communications beyond LTE/LTE-A (5G), representing the key findings of the European research project 5GNOW. We start with identifying the drivers for making the transition to 5G networks. Just to name one, the advent of the Internet of Things and its integration with conventional human-initiated transmissions creates a need for a fundamental system redesign. Then we make clear that the strict paradigm of synchronism and orthogonality as applied in LTE prevents efficiency and scalability. We challenge this paradigm and propose new key PHY layer technology components such as a unified frame structure, multicarrier waveform design including a filtering functionality, sparse signal processing mechanisms, a robustness framework, and transmissions with very short latency. These components enable indeed an efficient and scalable air interface supporting the highly varying set of requirements originating from the 5G drivers.