IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 18, NO.
8, AUGUST 2014
Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing in a Gabor Transform Setting
Maximilian Matthé, Luciano Leonel Mendes, and Gerhard Fettweis
Abstract—This letter shows the equivalence of the recently
proposed generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM)
communications scheme with a finite discrete critically sampled
Gabor expansion and transform. GFDM is described with the ter-
minology of Gabor analysis and the Balian-Low theorem is applied
to prove the non-existence of zero-forcing receivers for certain
configurations, having strong impact on the system performance.
An efficient algorithm for calculation of specific GFDM receiver
filters is derived and numerical examples confirm the theoretical
results.
Index Terms—Gabor transform, multicarrier modulation,
GFDM.
I. I NTRODUCTION
N EW waveforms are being proposed for the future mobile
communication physical (PHY) layer [1] and Filter Bank
Multicarrier (FBMC) [2] is a main candidate due to its ad-
vantageous properties of, among others, spectral shaping and
robustness against time and frequency offsets. However, its
long filter tails required to filter each subcarrier hinder burst
transmissions for low latency applications.
GFDM [3] is another waveform candidate for 5G networks.
Among its proposed advantages are low out of band radiation,
robustness against time and frequency offsets and flexibility
to accommodate a variety of channels and applications. Its
block based structure enables burst transmission for low latency
applications [3].
Gabor analysis and time-frequency analysis originated in
1947 when Dennis Gabor published his Theory of Communi-
cation, where he proposed to transmit an arbitrary signal as
the linear combination of time- and frequency-shifted Gaussian
impulses. Since then, mathematicians and engineers have put
research effort into the study when such an expansion is possi-
ble and which properties arise from it. A detailed mathematical
introduction to the foundations of time-frequency analysis is
given in e.g., [4], while a broad overview of current topics in
Gabor analysis is given in e.g., [5].
The main contribution of this paper is to show that GFDM
transmission and linear reception are equivalent to a critically
sampled finite discrete Gabor expansion and transform, respec-
Manuscript received March 31, 2014; revised June 13, 2014; accepted
June 14, 2014. Date of publication July 11, 2014; date of current version
August 8, 2014. This work has been performed in the framework of the FP7
project ICT-619555 RESCUE, which is partly funded by the European Union.
Partial funding for this work was also provided by CNPq-Brasil. The associate
editor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was
K. K. Wong.
M. Matthé and G. Fettweis are with Vodafone Chair Mobile Communi-
cations Systems, TU Techniche Universität (TU) Dresden, Dresden 01062,
Germany (e-mail: maximilian.matthe@ifn.et.tu-dresden.de; fettweis@ifn.et.tu-
dresden.de).
L. L. Mendes is with Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações (Inatel),
37540-000 Sta. Rita do Sapucai-MG, Brazil (e-mail: luciano@inatel.br).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LCOMM.2014.2332155
1089-7798 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1379
tively, which offers the possibility to apply the vast mathe-
matical background of Gabor analysis to the study of GFDM.
Two main results that follow from the application of Gabor
analysis to GFDM are analyzed. Primarily, Gabor analysis
brings theoretic reasoning to the existence and performance
of certain receiver configurations. Secondly, although efficient
algorithms for the practical implementation of GFDM exist [3],
still a concern is the derivation of employed filter coefficients,
which requires a huge matrix inversion. Here, the Gabor trans-
form structure of GFDM can be exploited to circumvent the
matrix inversion requirement and provide a fast algorithm for
calculation of GFDM receiver filters.
The remainder of this work is structured as follows:
Section II describes GFDM from the conventional point of view
in terms of a filtered multicarrier system. In Section III the
discrete Gabor transform is introduced. Section IV puts GFDM
into the notation of Gabor analysis and consequences resulting
from Gabor theory are pointed out. Numerical examples are
provided in Section V and conclusion is drawn in Section VI.
II. GFDM P RINCIPLES
The block-based communication scheme GFDM is described
in [3] as an innovative modulation technique suitable for the
air interface of 5G networks. The block diagram of a GFDM
transmitter is shown in Fig. 1. In a GFDM block with length
of N = M K samples, M complex valued subsymbols are
transmitted on each of the K subcarriers. The M data sym-
bols dk [m], m = 0, 1, . . . , M − 1 on the kth subcarrier are
upsampled by factor K and filtered with a circular convolution
with the transmitter filter g[n]. The signal is upconverted to the
frequency of the kth subcarrier to yield the transmit signal xk [n]
of the kth subcarrier by
   

M −1 
   kn
xk [n] = g[n ]  dk [m]δ[n − mK]  exp j2π ,
 K
m=0 n
(1)
where  denotes circular convolution with respect to the block
length N and n is the convolution index variable. Expressing
the convolution explicitly and superpositioning all xk [n], the
transmit signal is given by
M
K−1 −1
 M
K−1 −1

kn
x[n] = dkm g0m [n]ej2π K = dkm gkm [n],
k=0 m=0 k=0 m=0
(2)
where gkm [n] = g[(n − mK) mod N ]ej2π(kn/K) are circu-
larly time-frequency shifted versions of the prototype transmit
filter g[n] and dkm = dk [m]. Note that, as a GFDM corner case,
(2) reduces √ to the IDFT expression of OFDM if M = 1 and
g[n] = 1/ K. On the other hand, GFDM reduces to SC-FDE
(Single-Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization), when K = 1
1380
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the GFDM transmitter.
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the GFDM receiver.
and g[n] = δ[n] [3]. Equation (2) can be reformulated into a
single matrix equation [3] by
(x[n]) 
n = A(g)d, (3)
where (·) denotes transpose, A(g) is a N × N matrix contain-
ing gkm [n] from (2) as its (k + mK)th column and d is a vector
containing dkm at the corresponding rows. Note that A(g) is a
linear mapping according to
αA(g) + βA(h) = A(αg + βh), (4)
where g, h are arbitrary windows and α, β ∈ C.
Assuming an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) chan-
nel the received signal is given by
y[n] = x[n] + w[n] (5)
2
where w[n] is AWGN with variance σw . f =0 t=0
The block diagram of the linear GFDM receiver is shown
in Fig. 2. Each subcarrier is shifted to the DC subcarrier,
circularly convolved with a specific receiver filter h∗ [−n] and
downsampled to the symbol rate. At the kth subcarrier the mth
received subsymbol dˆk [m] is therefore given by
    
kn  where N = ΔT T = ΔF F ; F, T, ΔF, ΔT ∈ N+ equals the
dˆk [m] = y[n ]  h∗ [−n ] exp −j2π  . (6)
K 
n=mK
which is expressed with the standard scalar product in CN by
dˆkm = y[n], hkm [n]CN (7)
where hkm [n] = h[(n − mK) mod N ] exp(j2π(kn/K)) is
the prototype receiver filter h[n] circularly shifted to the cor-
responding subcarrier and subsymbol. Again, (7) reduces to
the DFT expression
√ of the OFDM receiver, when M = 1 and
h[n] = 1/ K The reception of all symbols at the same time
can be combined into a single matrix equation
ˆ
d = B(h)y = B(h)A(g)d + B(h)w,
 (8)
where B(h) = (A(h))H is the N × N matrix that contains
h∗km as its (k + mK)th row and (·)H denotes conjugate trans-
pose. From (3) three standard linear receiver types are readily
available [3]:
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 18, NO. 8, AUGUST 2014
1) Matched Filter (MF) Receiver: The MF receiver matrix
is given by B(hMF ) = AH g where Ag = A(g). It maximizes
the signal-to-noise ratio per subcarrier, but introduces self-
interference due to the possible non-orthogonality of the trans-
mit filter.
2) Zero-Forcing (ZF) Receiver: The ZF matrix is given by
B(hZF ) = A−1 g . It cancels out all self-interference at the cost of
increasing the noise power. Furthermore, there are cases when
A(g) becomes singular and no ZF receiver exists.
3) Linear Minimum-Mean-Square-Error (MMSE) Receiver:
The matrix for the linear MMSE receiver is given by
 −1 H
B(hMMSE ) = AH g Ag + σ w I
2
Ag (9)
2
where σw is the variance of the AWGN and I is the identity
matrix. It balances self-interference and noise-enhancement
and outperforms both MF and ZF receivers at the cost of an
increased complexity due to the necessary estimation of the
noise variance.
III. T HE D ISCRETE G ABOR E XPANSION AND T RANSFORM
In its traditional form the Gabor expansion expresses a time-
continuous signal x(t) in terms of a linear combination of
time-frequency shifts of a prototype window g(t) [6]. A finite
discrete version of Gabor analysis is obtained by periodization
and sampling of the time-continuous signal, as is described
in e.g., [7]. The resulting signal x[n] is constrained to be
discrete in time and periodic with the period of N samples or,
equivalently, of finite extent of N samples. x[n] is expanded
from T F functions, which are circular time-frequency shifts
uf t [n] of a prototype window u[n] by

F −1 T
 −1
x[n] = af t (x)uf t [n] (10)
with
 
ΔF
uf t [n] = u [(n − mΔT ) mod N ] exp j2π fn (11)
N
length of the discrete transform and ΔT and ΔF/N describe
the step size for time- and frequency-shifts, respectively. The
corresponding discrete Gabor transform with a window ν[n] is
defined by [7]

N −1
af t (x) = x[n]νf∗ t [n] = x[n], νf t [n]CN (12)
n=0
with
 
ΔF
νf t [n] = ν [(n − mΔT ) mod N ] exp j2π fn (13)
N
i.e., the scalar product of the signal x[n] with the corresponding
time-frequency shift νf t [n] of the window ν[n]. A main concern
in classical Gabor analysis is, if for a given u[n] the expansion
coefficients af t (x) in (10) exist for every x[n]. Furthermore,
what is the corresponding ν[n] to calculate them?
MATTHÉ et al.: GENERALIZED FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING IN A GABOR TRANSFORM SETTING 1381

Wexler and Raz [7] proved that the coefficients for (10) are
calculated by (12) if and only if

N −1
N
u−f,−t [n]ν ∗ [n] = δ0f δ0t (14)
n=0
TF

is fulfilled for every 0 ≤ t < ΔF , 0 ≤ f < ΔT , which is Fig. 3. Modulus of the CTZT of a RC with rolloff 0.7 and 0.2 and the sampling
positions for K = 128 and different M . For M = 6 the DZT contains a zero,
known as the prominent Wexler-Raz duality condition. The for M = 5 the zero is not sampled and the values of the DZT are high. With
corresponding ν[n] is called the dual window to u[n]. M = 31 also small values are contained in the DZT, which increases the norm
The choice of the step sizes ΔT and ΔF significantly influ- of the ZF receiver filter and, hence, its NEF.
ences the existence and uniqueness of ν[n]. Dual windows exist
A. Calculation of the ZF Receiver Window
only if ΔT ΔF ≤ N , where equality is referred to as critical
sampling. In the oversampled case ΔT ΔF < N multiple dual A main concern for the application of the GFDM ZF and
windows may exist for a given u[n], whereas in the critically MMSE receivers is that it requires the numerically intensive
sampled case, existing dual windows are unique. inversion of Ag of size KM × KM . Since current communi-
cation systems can have thousands of subcarriers and subsym-
bols (e.g., LTE TTI: K = 2048, M = 15) this matrix may even
IV. GFDM IN A G ABOR T RANSFORM S ETTING hardly fit into memory of current hardware. Dual windows,
When setting ΔT = K and ΔF = M with M K = N a crit- and hence ZF and MMSE receiver filters, can be efficiently
ically sampled Gabor transform and expansion pair is obtained. calculated with the help of the discrete Zak-Transform (DZT)
Furthermore, when the transmit filter g[n] of GFDM is iden- [8] without requiring the inversion of A(g). The DZT is derived
tified with the Gabor window u[n], the transmitted data dkm from the continuous-time Zak-Transform (CTZT) [9]
with the Gabor expansion coefficients akm , and the receiver 
(Zg)(t, f ) = g(t + l)e−j2πlf (19)
filter with some h[n] it is obvious that GFDM transmission
l∈Z
is a critically sampled Gabor expansion with window g[n] and
GFDM reception is a critically sampled Gabor transform with by sampling the time and frequency components [8] accord-
window h[n]. ing to
The receiver filters for MF, ZF, and MMSE receivers can    
n k
therefore be described in terms of a Gabor transform window. Z (K,M ) g [n, k] = (Zg) ,
1) MF Receiver: The receiver matrix of the MF GFDM K M
M−1  
receiver is given by B(hMF ) = AH g . Therefore the window of n
+ l e−j2π M .
kl
= g (20)
the corresponding Gabor transform is equal to hMF = g. K
l=0
2) ZF Receiver: The ZF receiver matrix is given by
B(hZF ) = (Ag )−1 . Accordingly, when looking at the first row This discretization assumes that g(t) is sampled with an interval
of B(hZF )Ag = I we have 1/K and is made periodic with the period M [8]. For the critical
sampling case, as in GFDM, the relation [10]
 −1
N
 ∗   1
gkm [n] hZF [n] = δ0k δ0m (15) Z (K,M ) γ [n, k] =  (21)
n=0 K Z (K,M ) g ∗ [n, k]

for 0 ≤ k < K, 0 ≤ m < M . This is exactly the Wexler-Raz between the DZT of the Gabor window g[n] and its dual γ[n]
duality condition from (14) when identifying g−k,−m [n] = holds. Accordingly the ZF and MMSE receiver windows can be
gK−k,M −m [n]. Hence, the Gabor window of the ZF receiver calculated with numerical efficient algorithms [10].
is exactly the window that is dual to g[n], denoted by hZF =
D(g). The noise enhancement factor (NEF) of the ZF receiver B. Singularity of Ag
2
is given by ξhZF =
hZF
.
3) MMSE Receiver: Equation (9) can be rewritten as fol- In previous works [3] it has been mentioned without reason-
lows, when AH ing that Ag becomes singular with certain configurations of M ,
g is included into the matrix inversion
K, and g. In these cases no ZF receiver exists and MMSE and

 −1 H −1 MF receiver perform worse in terms of bit error rate. In this
B(hMMSE ) = Ag + σw 2
Ag
paper, Gabor analysis is employed to develop the theoretical
 2

−1 background to the question of singularity of Ag . As is evident
= A(g) + σw A(hZF ) (16) from (21) the dual window γ[n] will not exist if the DZT of g[n]
has zeros [8]. Hence, Ag will be singular in these cases.
and with linearity (4) it simplifies to
The Balian-Low theorem (BLT) states that, at critical sam-
 

2 ZF −1 pling, functions that are well localized in time and frequency
B(hMMSE ) = A g + σw h . (17)
cannot constitute a Gabor frame and, accordingly, their CTZT
Accordingly, the window for the Gabor transform of the MMSE has at least one zero [4]. In previous works [3] GFDM mostly
receiver is equal to employs time-frequency well localized raised cosine (RC) or
 root-raised cosine transmit filters. By the nature of the CTZT,
hMMSE = D g + σw 2
D(g) . (18) these real symmetric windows g(t) fulfill (Zg) (1/2, 1/2) = 0
1382
Fig. 4. (a) NEF for K = 128, RC filter with different rolloffs α. Only odd M are depicted since no ZF receiver exists for even M . (b) Symbol error rates under
AWGN. All systems are simulated with K = 128 and use a RC with α1 = 0.2 or α2 = 0.7 and 16-QAM modulation. (a) Noise enhancement factor. (b) Symbol
error rate performance.
[9]. Consequently, (Z (K,M ) g) [K/2, M/2] = 0 when K, M
are even and no dual window and ZF receiver exist. Hence,
only odd M or K should be considered for practical implemen-
tations. However, even though the ZF receiver exists for odd K
or odd M , the DZT of g[n] contains smaller values when K or
M increase due to the finer sampling grid. Hence, the DZT of
hZF [n] contains growing values, constituting an increased noise
enhancement. Additionally, filters with wider rolloff contain
lower CTZT values in overall. Fig. 3 illustrates these results.
From a more general point of view, every transmit filter whose
DZT contains values close to zero shows reduced performance
due to an increased noise enhancement, which can lead to a
design criteria for GFDM filters.
Although the non-symmetric Xia filters [11] can be used
as prototype filter for GFDM [3], simple calculation shows
that (ZgXia ) [1/4, 1/2] = 0 which again leads to singularity
problems. Additionally, in [3] the use of a periodized version
of the sinc-function as the transmit filter is suggested. Due to
its bad time-localization, this orthogonal filter does not suffer
from the BLT and its CTZT has constant modulus. Hence, the
NEF does not increase with a finer sampling, but the bad time-
localization can make the system more vulnerable to timing-
offsets.
V. N UMERICAL E XAMPLES
Fig. 4(a) shows the NEF of a GFDM system with K =
128 and varying odd M , using a RC filter with two different
rolloffs. No NEF can be given for even M due to the non-
existence of the ZF receiver. Evidently, for both filters, the noise
enhancement increases with M . From a conventional point of
view, with higher M and rolloff the ZF receiver needs to cancel
more ISI and ICI which is bought for noise amplification.
From a Gabor analysis point of view, with a wider opening
or denser sampling of the CTZT of the transmitter filter, the
DZT contains values that approach zero (cf. Fig. 3), constituting
larger values in the DZT of the dual window, which increases
the dual window’s norm and, therefore, increases the NEF.
To underline the obtained theoretic results, Fig. 4(b) shows
simulated symbol error rates (SER) of different receiver types
under AWGN for GFDM systems with different parameter
combinations. For comparison, the performance of FBMC over
AWGN channel is additionally provided. Notice that the effect
of FBMC filter tails and the cyclic prefix in GFDM has not been
taken into account, i.e., the same spectral efficiency has been
considered for both cases. For even M no ZF receiver exists
and MF and MMSE also perform poorly, whereas for odd M
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 18, NO. 8, AUGUST 2014
the ZF receiver exists and MF and MMSE perform better. When
the noise enhancement is small (small M , small rolloff), the
system is nearly orthogonal and ZF detection performs close to
FBMC and optimal linear MMSE detection. With higher noise
enhancement, orthogonality is lost and performance degrades
in general but the MMSE receiver outperforms the ZF receiver.
VI. C ONCLUSION
This letter has bridged the current understanding of GFDM
as a novel multicarrier transmission scheme and the mathe-
matical theory of Gabor analysis. It was shown that GFDM is
equivalent to a critically sampled Gabor expansion and analysis
pair. Gabor analysis was used to efficiently calculate the ZF
and MMSE receiver filters without requiring a matrix inversion,
making it possible to provide receiver filters for large systems.
Insight into the singularity conditions of GFDM was obtained
by investigating the zeros of the DZT of the transmitter filter. It
was proven the fact that certain parameter configurations lead
to singular systems which eventually influences system design
and practical implementations. The obtained theoretical results
were confirmed by numerical examples.
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