When SDR meets a 5G candidate waveform:

agile use of fragmented spectrum and

interference protection in PMR networks
Oriol Font-Bach1, Nikolaos Bartzoudis1, Xavier Mestre1, David López-Bueno1, Philippe Mège2,
Laurent Martinod2, Vidar Ringset3 and Tor André Myrvoll3
1
Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya,
2
AIRBUS Defence and Space,
3
SINTEF ICT

Abstract- Filter bank multi carrier (FBMC) is a candidate modulation scheme for the fifth generation (5G) cellular
mobile broadband networks. A specific domain where FBMC offers a clear advantage over other multicarrier solutions is
the efficient occupancy of underutilized and fragmented spectrum. This is due to the rich spectral containment of the
FBMC technology, which guarantees superior interference protection to the primary coexisting transmissions. These
features of FBMC could play an important role for the economic delivery of 5G services in licensed and unlicensed bands.
This paper focuses on the public safety domain where existing professional mobile radio (PMR) users are planning to add
broadband services at the 400 MHz band, aiming to occupy the spectral holes left by current narrowband transmissions.
In this respect an agile software defined radio (SDR) broadband downlink FBMC system, aimed at exploiting unused
licensed PMR spectrum, was developed and experimentally validated. The FBMC frame structure shared key similarities
with the long term evolution (LTE) specification. Two different SDR design methodologies were used to build the real-
time baseband prototype. The level of interference protection offered by a broadband FBMC system to a coexisting
primary narrowband PMR transmission was practically demonstrated and compared to that of an equivalent LTE
system. This was made feasible by evaluating the performance of a PMR terminal under different mobile channels and
FBMC waveform configurations. The applicability of this work to other 5G spectrum cohabitation scenarios is discussed.
Finally, the paper highlights the need to extend the SDR design paradigm, in order to tackle the challenges of real-time
baseband processing in 5G broadband cellular systems.

I. INTRODUCTION
Estimations of the data traffic growth in cellular-based mobile broadband networks are clearly imposing the need
for a more efficient spectrum usage. A possible way to tackle the increasing demand for more bandwidth is to
migrate existing radio technologies to higher unlicensed bands of the spectrum. The use of millimeter wave radio
frequency (RF) bands is foreseen as a key enabler for the deployment of the fifth generation (5G) broadband
wireless communication systems. In parallel, however, the next generation mobile networks (NGMN) Alliance
emphasizes that low frequency spectrum, especially sub-1GHz, is absolutely essential for specific coverage
scenarios [1] (e.g., indoor, rural areas), and for this reason priority must be given to i) make more spectrum available
in those low bands, and ii) use that spectrum much more efficiently. According to the NGMN Alliance these two
factors are critical to provide an economical delivery of mobile services both for existing systems as well as future
5G systems.
Among different solutions proposed for the first recommendation, the most straightforward and cost-efficient
one for spectrum holders, site owners and infrastructure equipment vendors is the interference-free coexistence of
waveforms that fill the existing spectral gaps in currently underutilized licensed bands. This concept can be similarly
extended to a combined use of licensed and unlicensed bands, and can therefore avoid the lengthy and cumbersome
process of spectrum re-farming that typically involves a number of stakeholders, i.e. creating contiguous spectrum
by moving and grouping frequencies that belong to different spectrum owners or leasers. Minimizing the
interference in such a fragmented spectrum scenario, while maintaining the highest possible spectral efficiency, is a
true technological challenge. An example of all this are professional mobile radio (PMR) networks used for public
protection and disaster relief (PPDR) services in the 400 MHz band, where the available unoccupied licensed
fragmented spectrum could be reused to add broadband PPDR communications.
The second recommendation of the NGMN Alliance could be addressed by adopting new spectrally efficient
waveforms that would replace the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) solutions currently used in
4G long term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks. OFDM is spectrally inefficient due to certain features
such as the cyclic prefix (CP), the high exposure to frequency offsets and the high sensitivity to interferences in
fragmented spectrum use cases. Different alternatives have been proposed and benchmarked towards this end in
recent industry-academia collaborative projects funded by the European Union, such as METIS [2], 5GNOW [3]
and EMPhAtiC [4]. Filter bank multi carrier (FBMC) is a spectrally-efficient physical layer (PHY) scheme with
different variants that was revisited in the framework of these three flagship projects, whose original goal was to
pave the way to 5G research. A number of sources in the literature discuss the advantages and shortcomings of these
two PHY schemes, providing results of comparative studies (e.g., [5]). FBMC, as opposed to OFDM, imposes the
need for higher digital signal processing (DSP) complexity and features an increased symbol period. Among others,
these two factors have been holding off the adoption of FBMC in cellular broadband mobile radio communications.
However, as new heterogeneous processing solutions are introduced, it becomes every time more viable to adopt
more complex PHY-layer techniques like FBMC, while addressing tight energy budgets at a lower cost and a
smaller integrated circuit (IC) size. Furthermore, low-complexity FBMC implementation schemes have lately been
proposed [6], and early field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementations have been evaluated [7] in an effort
to prove that FBMC is a reasonable option for 5G end-use scenarios.
The paper shows that FBMC can indeed be efficiently implemented by adopting reconfigurable software defined
radio (SDR) techniques. Moreover, by practically demonstrating the superior interference protection of FBMC when
coexisting with narrowband transmissions (e.g., PMR PPDR), a paradigm for similar 5G operating scenarios is
envisioned.

II. SCOPE
The aim of this work is to show how FBMC enables an efficient exploitation of sub-1 GHz fragmented
spectrum, providing at the same time premium in-band interference protection to critical primary transmission
systems. CP-OFDM (LTE) has been selected for the comparison versus the FBMC waveform considering its
widespread use in current 4G systems.
A second goal is to complement existing analytical findings and numerical simulation results reported in the
literature. Hence, the present study is supported by the design, implementation and experimental validation of a
flexible real-time broadband FBMC downlink (DL) communication system able to coexist in the same band with
narrowband DL radio communications. A cellular-based wireless communication application scenario was adopted,
reflecting an ongoing effort of operators, spectrum holders and equipment vendors to introduce new broadband data
services within the current frequency allocation of PMR networks used for PPDR services [8]. It is important to
mention that LTE trials with pilot networks have already been conducted to explore the feasibility of adding mobile
broadband capabilities to existing terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) and TETRA for police (TETRAPOL) networks.
As shown in this paper, substituting the underlying CP-OFDM technology of LTE with FBMC offers significant
benefits in terms of spectral containment and interference protection to adjacent transmissions, a fact that is
particularly important in mission critical communications, or systems with elevated quality of service requirements.
Two different paradigms of SDR were adopted for implementing and validating the baseband real-time
prototype. The hardware setup made use of either the broadband FBMC or LTE transmitter in coexistence with a
commercial PMR TETRAPOL terminal operating at the 400 MHz band. In order to provide a fair comparison, the
FBMC frame structure shows high similarity to that of LTE-OFDM. The SDR implementation ensures a flexible
utilization of the spectrum not occupied by the narrowband transmission through a programmable subcarrier
allocation. It also demonstrates that when compared with OFDM under similar operating conditions, the FBMC
waveform not only optimally occupies the spectrum, but also reduces considerably the interference to adjacent and
in-band narrowband PMR transmissions.
Although the proof of concept described herein demonstrates coexistence of broadband waveforms with
narrowband PMR communications used for PPDR services, the benefits of FBMC can be applied to other
waveforms’ coexistence scenarios. This may include coexistence with GSM [9], digital terrestrial television white
spaces, (TVWS) [10] or with machine to machine (M2M) transmissions [11], which however are not covered in this
paper. Besides, it is important to highlight the numerous operational and functional similarities shared among the
FBMC-PMR DL system coexistence, with key spectrum cohabitation cases targeting 5G paradigms. An indicative
correlation of the work presented herein can be envisioned in the coexistence of narrowband internet of things (IoT)
transmissions (resembling PMR transmissions) with dynamically parametrizable FBMC waveforms serving
broadband cellular communications.

III. USE CASE SCENARIO

Radio communication solutions play a vital role in helping public safety organizations to protect citizens. These
organizations, which include the police, fire and rescue services as well as military users, are facing an increased
need towards a data-centric access on the field, capable of providing larger data capacities. Specific applications
include:
 Situational awareness (video, picture, location and mapping).
 Streaming of live video to control rooms and back to groups of mobile users.
 Facial recognition and instant access to databases.
 Patient record access.
 Data collection and sharing (from M2M sensors) and telemetry.
 Real-time gathering and distribution of picture information.
 Automation of procedures (e.g., remote management of field equipment).
 Data exchange between automatic control systems (e.g., signaling between train and ground during high-
speed operations).
 Professional users need excellent radio coverage even when operating indoors or in dense city environments,
where there is a risk of signals being blocked by buildings and other structures. The 400 MHz band offers superior
propagation characteristics, especially in low-coverage areas such as basements and stairwells. It is therefore
suitable to difficult propagation scenarios in dense urban areas, as well as for deploying large cells in rural areas,
helping to reduce the number of sites required to guarantee a given coverage.
Considering that it is difficult to acquire more spectrum in sub-1 GHz frequency bands due to the competition
with commercial networks operators, major players of the PPDR field such as AIRBUS Defence and Space have
already developed multi-standard base station platforms in the 400 MHz band, combining PMR with LTE
technology (as shown on the top left part of figure 1). Such network elements enable PMR networks to add
broadband services to their existing TETRA/TETRAPOL systems. Hence, the 400 MHz band is an essential asset
for the PPDR community since it offers the opportunity to re-use existing sites already operating on the same
frequency. Furthermore, it allows the initial implementation of dedicated broadband coverage for public safety
users, while offering roaming capability with commercial or private networks in other bands that, in the future, will
be harmonized for PPDR. This fact also implies a minimum investment to bring added-value capabilities while
allowing a significant reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO).

Figure 1. The superior spectral occupancy and efficiency of the proposed FBMC scheme when compared to CP-OFDM (LTE) under the same
PMR coexistence use case scenario.
 LTE is considered nowadays the de facto mobile broadband standard and will certainly become the reference
system for future broadband PMR. However, it is important to highlight that the spectral shape of the LTE signals
cannot optimally use the spectral holes left by sparse primary PMR transmissions in fragmented spectrum scenarios
(top right part of figure 1). Indeed, as extensively documented in [12], a significant penalty in terms of unused
spectrum between adjacent PMR and LTE transmissions (i.e., guard bands) has to be considered to guarantee
interference immunity. This might prove to be a crucial factor in the years to come, taking into account that the
spectrum coexistence of PMR with LTE will be required for at least 10 to 15 years more [1]. Achieving better
spectrum occupancy will thus imply minimization of the mentioned guard bands. On top of that, the data rate shall
be optimized as a function of the available frequency spectrum and as a function of the total number of deployed
cells [13]. FBMC is a 5G candidate waveform that is able to efficiently satisfy both requirements. Hence, in the
future, the current LTE solution for coexistence with primary PMR systems at the 400 MHz band1 could be replaced
by an LTE-like FBMC system achieving optimal spectral reuse (as seen in the bottom left part of figure 1).

IV. FBMC VERSUS CP-OFDM

Multicarrier modulations are universally used in almost all broadband mobile communications systems. They
provide an effective means of combating channel frequency selectivity by using simple equalizers, while at the same
time procuring a very convenient way of flexibly shaping the transmitted waveform according to the instantaneous
spectrum characteristics. The first studies on multicarrier transmissions date back to the 60’s, where the first truly
multicarrier techniques were proposed and evaluated [14]. Curiously enough, these original multicarrier waveforms
conformed to what is today known as FBMC configuration. The main discovery behind these early contributions
was the fact that, under ideal channel conditions, it was possible to transmit several parallel symbol streams using a
bank of spectrally overlapping transmit/receive filters, without penalty in terms of intersymbol/intercarrier
interference (ISI/ICI).
The idea was not immediately brought to practice due to the fact that radio channels are frequency selective, and
under these conditions FBMC modulations are not free from ISI/ICI anymore. This problem was later circumvented
by the introduction of CP OFDM, which was apparently first proposed in [15]. The idea is to insert some redundant
repetition of the signal in the time domain (a CP), so that the resulting waveform appears to have been affected by a
circular convolution with the channel impulse response. The use of the FFT rapidly transforms the equalization
problem into a mere multiplication by a complex weight in the frequency domain, that is, a single tap per-subcarrier
equalization. In addition to this, and in order to relax strict synchronization requirements, the OFDM signal is
typically transmitted using a rectangular pulse shape, which has poor spectral containment properties and imposes
the practical use of large guard bands between frequency contiguous transmissions.
In conclusion, classical CP-OFDM achieves a substantial simplification of the equalizer at the cost of an
important loss in terms of spectral efficiency: the introduction of the CP and the presence of large guard bands may
result in a loss of up to 30% of the total spectral efficiency. The advent of new powerful hardware architectures has
recently questioned the convenience of such a tremendous spectral loss, especially given the fact that current
receivers could easily afford the introduction of more powerful equalization schemes. For this reason, there has been

1
Evercor®, the integrated LTE 400 PMR solution from Alcatel-Lucent and Airbus Defense & Space
a renewed interest in “pure” FBMC modulations as originally proposed in the early literature [14], which completely
avoid the use of CP and allow for spectrally contained pulse shaping. At the same time, it should also be mentioned
that the superior frequency localization properties of the FBMC modulations makes them inherently disperse in
time. This increased latency is especially relevant in systems employing time division-duplexing (TDD), as it would
require the utilization of large guard times between uplink (UL) and DL transmissions.
The table below provides a very simple comparison of the main features of pure FBMC and CP-OFDM. In
general terms, FBMC provides better frequency containment and optimum spectral efficiency, and it allows for
natural implementations of in-band frequency division multiple access (FDMA) among different users. On the
downside, FMBC imposes the need of more complex equalization, features an increased latency and its combination
with MIMO needs additional signal processing as compared to classical CP-OFDM.

TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE MAIN FEATURES OF CP-OFDM AND FBMC
Frequency Spectral In-band Combination Equalization PAPR Latency
containment Efficiency FDMA with MIMO
CP-OFDM Poor Suboptimal Unfeasible Trivial Trivial Poor Low
FBMC Very good Optimal Natural Complex Complex Configurable High

V. IMPLEMENTATION

A. Real-time SDR solutions in the 5G era

SDR-based research has allowed software engineers and researchers to rapidly develop and realistically validate
radio communication systems and algorithms. A high-level baseband system simulation can be transformed in
software code able to run on a SDR platform within a reasonable timeframe. An experimental SDR setup typically
includes computers with general purpose processors (GPPs), which execute the baseband functions, and signal
conversion and RF transceiver hardware that is connected to the computer through a standard input/output (I/O)
interface. We denote this as the classic SDR paradigm considering its widespread popularity.
Broadband real-time systems are a special category of SDR programming due to their stringent processing
requirements posed by signal bandwidth, baseband sample rate, degree of algorithmic parallelism and multi-antenna
scheme type, to mention a few. A common mistake is to assume that the high processing capacity of a computer is
able to remove the hassle of dimensioning the computational complexity. However, reality is different and
depending on the intrinsics of the real-time algorithm-system development, performance bottlenecks in SDR might
be encountered at i) the processor capacity itself, ii) the I/O communication interface of the computer with the RF
transceivers, iii) an internal bus operation, when for instance graphical processing units (GPUs) are employed and
iv) an external memory IC access (e.g., large memory requirements, multi-fragmented access, very low latency
requirements).
The hardware-software co-design is a widely adopted technique, the objective of which is to separate bit-
intensive functions that need to run in dedicated hardware ICs from those that can run in some sort of GPP. With the
inclusion of powerful GPPs and programmable logic within the same chip, hardware-software co-design is the
native way to program such FPGA-based system-on-chips (SoCs). The close coupling of these processing elements
(GPP and FPGA area) through a very high speed embedded bus, makes the FPGA-assisted SDR a very powerful
candidate for the development of processing-demanding baseband solutions. This can be made feasible by
partitioning the baseband functions either of a high-level system model or existing SDR implementation according
to their processing load. Those functions that feature a low processing load can be implemented and executed at the
embedded GPP, whereas the baseband functions that require massive parallelism may be accelerated in the FPGA
area of the SoC. Migrating the functions from an energy-hungry GPP at a modern FPGA-based SoC device can also
dramatically reduce the energy budget and make the SDR programming an attractive option for a series of other
end-applications.
Despite the great advances of SDR programming in terms of computational efficiency over the past years, the
classic SDR paradigm is facing important baseband design challenges that researchers need to overcome. The
solutions proposed and evaluated today for 5G radio communications (see [2], [3]) entail elevated performance
requirements and thus increased computational complexity. The results and findings discussed in this section fully
support the previous statement. Whereas research on optimizing and boosting existing SDR libraries will be
absolutely essential, it will also be important to provide an expansion of the classic SDR paradigm that will be able
to cope with the computational load of 5G baseband processing.

B. Specifications of the FBMC system

In order to tackle the challenges of unused fragmented spectrum and deal with the complexity of the SDR
baseband implementation, we propose an FBMC-based DL system featuring the configuration described hereafter.
The structure of the DL FBMC frame has maintained a certain degree of similarity with the specifications of the CP-
OFDM LTE (release 9) for the frequency division duplexing (FDD) mode. The lowest LTE bandwidth specification
of 1.4 MHz was adopted to reduce the processing load. Each FBMC symbol comprises 72 active subcarriers with a
15 kHz spacing. This results in a 10 ms long radio frame consisting of 10 subframes. The frame thus includes a total
of 150 symbols for the FBMC waveform and 120 for the CP-OFDM one. In the FBMC case, the first 3 symbols in a
frame contain the preamble with a specific structure that allows for frame synchronization under fragmented
spectrum scenarios. The pilot pattern in the FBMC frame resembles the MBSFN structure of LTE. Pilot symbols are
inserted at every other carrier; their separation in time is 7.5 symbols. Contrary to CP-OFDM, where there exists
perfect orthogonality among neighboring symbols (for moderate Doppler and channel multipath effects), in FBMC
the complex symbols are strongly coupled both in time and frequency. It was therefore necessary to eliminate the
influence of the surrounding data on the received pilot through the introduction of an “auxiliary pilot”, which is
fixed at the transmitter in order to compensate the contribution from surrounding symbols.
FBMC transceivers can be implemented with two classical ways, either via polyphase networks or via fast
convolution [6]. This last approach was the one followed in the SDR implementation. A short transform length of 8
FFT bins per subcarrier spacing (i.e., 16 points) combined with a long transform length of 1024 points was selected
to maintain a reasonable tradeoff between performance and run-time computational load. A non-overlapping block
length of 10 samples ensured good in-band and out-of-band interference levels. It is important to highlight that the
PHYDYAS prototyping filter [16] was employed due to its low out-of-band power leakage in the frequency domain
and also because it provides almost perfect receive signal reconstruction under frequency flat channels. The
propagation characteristics at the 400 MHz band result in highly frequency selective channels with very low
Doppler, for which the PHYDYAS pulse is especially suitable.

C. Implementation details
Two different SDR programming approaches were evaluated. The broadband DL FBMC receiver was built using
traditional SDR programming tools running on a high-end GPP of a standard computer, whereas the transmitter was
implemented using a hardware-assisted SDR framework targeting a FPGA-based SoC device. The objective behind
that selection was twofold; the first goal was to show that the implementation complexity of the receiver could
consume a significant portion of the processing power of a state-of-the-art GPP; the second goal was to demonstrate
the benefits and implementation efficiency of using a hardware-assisted SDR approach. In order to alleviate the
SDR processing burden at the receiver, simple DSP algorithms were implemented (e.g., single-tap equalizer,
channel estimation based on a linear interpolation). A high-level block diagram of the functions comprising the
implemented FBMC transmitter and receiver is shown at the top of figure 2.
A balanced partitioning of the baseband functions allowed to exploit the benefits of the SoC device at the
transmitter side. The bit-intensive DSP functions were implemented in the FPGA area of the device (e.g., synthesis
filter-bank), whereas the functions related to the generation of the dynamically reconfigurable frame were
implemented in the software domain. A custom digital design employing advanced register transfer level (RTL)
design techniques such as latency-aware storage, clock-gating and resource sharing, allowed to minimize the FPGA-
area processing and the utilization of embedded memory elements. This was particularly important considering that
the FPGA-based SoC hosted both the FBMC and CP-OFDM LTE baseband implementations. Resource sharing was
enabled by applying time division multiplexing, which allowed to reuse a single instance of a 16-point FFT engine
and a single instance of a 1024-point IFFT engine. The real-time implementation targeted the Xilinx XC7Z045 SoC
device occupying 6% of the slices, 5% of the DSP48E1 blocks and 4% of the embedded RAMB36E1 memories.
The SDR implementation of the receiver was based on a SDR framework developed at the Trinity College
(Dublin) known as implementing radio in software (IRIS). IRIS facilitates a representation of the PHY-layer as a
dataflow structure, where the different DSP stages are defined as (PHY) components and conform an acyclic graph
which features a unidirectional flow of information relying on intra-stage memory buffers. On top of that, the
components are organized in engines, which live on a single execution thread. This facilitates both the balancing of
the processing load in GPPs and the resource-access control (i.e., avoiding likewise expensive locking solutions). At
the component level, software-coding was carefully crafted to minimize inter-component messaging, which was
achieved by appropriately adjusting the granularity of the modular structure, as well as by optimizing latencies and
computational resources; this can be observed in the joint synchronization and framing component-design shown in
figure 2. The FFT processing blocks used for the analysis filter bank and the synchronization were based on the
fully-optimized FFTW3 software library. As a result, the software realization of the receiver utilized up to 60% of a
single core when being executed in an Intel Core i7-3720QM GPP clocked at 2.60 GHz, while the memory footprint
was negligible (i.e., tens of megabytes).
 centralized PHY-layer control
RS OFDM CP
pseudorandom insertion modulation insertion
bit sequence (OFDM (OFDM block) (OFDM block)
generator block) PMR-
symbol
MUX
(ITU PN20) aware

DEMUX

MUX

MUX
DEMUX
hardware-accelerated
mapping quiet-slot DSP functions
creation
scrambling
pilot OQAM FBMC
(OFDM block)
insertion processing modulation

FPGA-based SoC
analog to digital down- RF CHANNEL RF up- digital to analog
conversion conversion front-end front-end conversion conversion

rate blockwise
OQAM post
conversion processing large FFT multiply H(f) small iFFT equalisation select bins
processing
384/625 with overlap

carrier
CFO and
frequency channel
frame-start
offset estimation
estimation
correction
General Purpose Computer

sync seq 02 CFO estimate

input signal
1024- select
frequency
point samples ∆φ/∆t
192 640 192 mask odd
iFFT 193-1024
192 640 192 640 new sync seq E2
form abs
overlapping blocks 192 640 192 samples
1024- select
point samples
1024-point input select iFFT 193-1024
large FFT 1024-
FFT buffer used sync seq 01
point
1024 samples
FFT frequency 1024- select
multiply by even samples (1-584) abs
mask even point samples
per subcarrier processing

filter functions odd iFFT 193-1024

sync seq E1 find
16-point 16-point 16-point peak
small iFFT
iFFT iFFT ··· iFFT
192 640 192 1024- select
192 640 192 point samples approve
use 10 out of iFFT 193-1024 peak
16 samples
10/16 10/16 ··· 10/16 192 640 192

overlap multiply by multiply by coherent calculate

OQAM post timing offset
processing
OQAM OQAM ··· OQAM add input data frequency sign of data combination
mask for preamble of vectors 3
odd and symbols half symbols adjust
per subcarrier output signals even apart input buffer
subcarriers
FBMC processing joint synchronization and framing processing

Figure 2. A generic block diagram of the FBMC transmitter and receiver systems (top), including a detailed view of key receiver functions
(bottom).

The implementation metrics of the receiver demonstrate that the proposed system can be implemented using the
classic SDR paradigm. Nevertheless, taking into account the FBMC scheme configuration, the signal bandwidth and
the selected DSP algorithms, an implementation of a similar receiver featuring wider signal bandwidth (e.g., 20
MHz or more) and more complex DSP algorithms or communication schemes (e.g., cognitive-radio, adaptive multi-
antenna transmission) appears to be highly unfeasible. Hence, a hardware-accelerated SDR implementation strategy
could be adopted to exploit the massive computational capacity provided by purpose-built FPGA co-processors, in
order to alleviate the burden of computationally demanding SDR PHY-layer functions. As an illustrative example,
the implementation of the FBMC transmitter requires only a small fraction of the FPGA resources embedded within
the target SoC device.
 VI. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION SETUP
The coexistence of the broadband DL FBMC system, or its CP-OFDM (LTE) counterpart, with a narrowband
PMR transmission at the 400 MHz band was carried out with the help of the hardware setup shown in figure 3. The
objective was to reproduce the scenario described in Section 3, emulating close to real-life mobility conditions and
making use of a commercial PMR terminal. More specifically, the hardware setup included the following
equipment, devices and boards:
 Transmit side:
o The Agilent E4438C ESG vector signal generator (VSG) was used to cyclically playback a known
TETRAPOL I/Q frame-sequence and produce an RF signal centered at 382.53 MHz (real-time PMR
transmitter emulation).
o The Xilinx ZC706 board featuring a Zynq XC7Z045 FPGA-based SoC device hosted both the DL
FBMC and LTE real-time baseband implementations. The board carried the AD-FMCOMMS3 RF
front-end from Analog Devices fitted with the AD9361 RF transceiver, which provided the FBMC
or LTE RF signals centered at 382.88 GHz.
 Channel:
o The RF signals were fed to the Elektrobit Propsim C8 real-time channel emulator, which is able to
recreate realistic channel propagation conditions. The channel emulator was configured with
different standard channel models and applied mobility effects.
 Before reception:
o The signals at the output of the channel emulator were driven through a series of RF step attenuators
to control the power ratio between the two coexisting transmissions. The power-adjusted RF signals
were combined into a single RF signal. An RF splitter was added to provide two replicas of the
combined RF signals that were fed to the FBMC and PMR receivers.
 Receive side:
o A PMR M9620SG2 TETRAPOL terminal was used. The device was connected through a custom
cable to a computer, where a software application calculated the average bit error rate (BER)
observed at the terminal for a given number of frames.
o The Ettus Research USRP N210 device applied RF signal down conversion, signal acquisition and
digital down conversion to the DL FBMC signal. The complex baseband samples were then
forwarded to a computer through a gigabit ethernet (GigE) interface. The FBMC receiver SDR
implementation ran on a laptop, where the frame-based BER metrics were calculated and stored.
 VECTOR SIGNAL GENERATOR - PMR TRANSMITTER CHANNEL EMULATOR PMR RECEIVER
(I/Q vector playback & signal conversion) (commercial terminal + custom SW)
CH CONFIG.
BOX
··· I/Q TX2
TO RF NB_PMR_RF
serial
Matlab-generated cable
NB I/Q signal 382.53 MHz

COMBINED_SIGNAL_RF
Combined RF signal

(12.5 kHz BW)

NB RF signal
382.88 MHz
BROADBAND TRANSMITTER
(SoC-based FBMC/CP-OFDM transmitter) RF STEP
ATTENUATORS
Xilinx ZC706 board RF 2

Zynq XC7Z045 SoC RF 1

382.88 MHz
(1.4 MHz BW;

T
30 kHz hole)
BB RF signal

Custom RF_IN RF_OUT

Linux
VHDL/C
OS
code General Purpose Computer BROADBAND RECEIVER
(SDR-based FBMC receiver)
FMC bus IRIS
AD FMCOMMS3-EBZ FFTW3 USRP N210
Linux Custom C
board OS code
library RF 1
AD9361 RFIC BB_FBMC_RF
constellation
plotting & BER Gigabit Ethernet
calculation COMBINED_SIGNAL_I/Q

Figure 3. A representation of the complete experimental setup.

VII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A comprehensive measurement campaign was conducted using the experimental setup described in the previous
section. This allowed to practically demonstrate the interference protection benefits of the proposed FBMC scheme,
when coexisting with mission-critical TETRAPOL signals at the 400 MHz band. In this respect the goal was to
evaluate the impact of a secondary DL broadband transmission (FBMC or CP-OFDM), on the performance of the
primary narrowband PMR system. In parallel, it was carried out a functional validation of the two SDR
implementation methodologies adopted for the baseband development of the FBMC DL prototype.
The real-time broadband transmitter was able to switch between the FBMC or CP-OFDM (LTE) baseband
system. The flexible FPGA-assisted SDR implementation was able to adapt the DL signal at run-time, leaving an
appropriately sized spectral-hole where the primary narrowband PMR signal was transmitting. The entire set-up was
calibrated to precisely set the subcarrier power ratio between the two coexisting transmissions. Different models of
standard mobile channels were used in the channel emulator, which allowed covering a wide range of realistic
operating conditions.
The performance of the narrowband PMR receiver was evaluated in terms of the observed BER for different
power levels of the received signal and under different subcarrier power ratios between the coexisting signals. The
presented BER curves were produced by averaging the captured values of 10.000 TETRAPOL frames for each
selected measurement configuration.
First case study: The objective of this experimental evaluation was to determine the effect of the size of the spectral
hole on the performance of the TETRAPOL PMR system. This is basically related to the dimension of guard-bands
in adjacent/in-band signals and the level of the perceived interference. An ITU vehicular A (VA) channel with a
mobile speed of 50 km/h was used for this case study. In order to provide a fair comparison, the hardware setup was
configured to obtain a similar BER performance at the TETRAPOL PMR receiver (i.e., a value around 4e-3 which
represents a high quality voice communication) by properly adjusting the subcarrier power-ratio between the
broadband and narrowband transmissions for the different considered spectral-hole sizes. This allowed evaluating
the effect of the spectral-hole size as a function of the received signal power at the TETRAPOL terminal (figure
4.a). As it can be observed, the interference of the broadband DL FBMC signal to the TETRAPOL waveform was
clearly reduced (up to 10 dB) when a larger guard-band was applied, whereas the benefits of increasing the spectral
hole in the LTE-PMR coexistence case were negligible. The evaluation was then repeated for a wider range of
interference conditions, by fixing the power of the received signal at the TETRAPOL terminal (figure 4.b). When
considering the same operating conditions for the TETRAPOL terminal (fixed hole-size, received signal power and
resulting BER), FBMC is capable of transmitting at a substantially higher subcarrier power-level (up to 30 dB) when
compared to CP-OFDM. Moreover, the results for the FBMC-PMR coexistence scenario show that a 30 kHz
spectrum hole provides an optimum tradeoff between spectral efficiency and signal coexistence when a single 12.5
kHz TETRAPOL DL communication is considered.
Second case study: Once the optimal hole size was determined, the goal was to characterize the interference
protection level provided by the FBMC DL waveform under different mobile channels. In this respect, a comparison
with its CP-OFDM (LTE) counterpart was conducted under similar operating conditions. The spectral hole was
fixed at 30 kHz and different subcarrier power ratios were applied between the broadband and narrowband signals.
Apart from the VA channel model, it was also utilized the 3GPP typical urban (TU) channel at a 50 km/h speed. The
performance gain of FBMC over CP-OFDM in terms of sensitivity to baseband interferences measured at the
TETRAPOL terminal, turned out to be approximately 29 dB (figure 5.a). This interference protection advantage of
FBMC over CP-OFDM was maintained under different operating conditions.
Functional validation of the SDR implementation: In parallel to the two case studies, the correct operation of the
real-time DL FBMC baseband implementation was validated by calculating the BER observed at the receiver when
coexisting with the PMR transmission. The spectral hole accommodating the PMR transmission was fixed at 30 kHz
and the BER was calculated by averaging the captured values of 10.000 FBMC frames. On top of the previously
used channel models (VA and TU), the 3GPP extended pedestrian A (EPA) channel model (3 km/h) was also
evaluated. No clear variation of the FBMC receiver performance was observed when the subcarrier power level of
the TETRAPOL signal was below that of the broadband one. Figure 5.b shows the BER performance of the FBMC
receiver when using the mentioned channel models and also when considering two representative subcarrier power-
level ratios (i.e., one in favor of each one of the two coexisting systems). It is important to mention that no channel
coding was implemented in the FBMC system and, consequently, the figure provides the uncoded (raw) BER. The
FBMC system yields a 385.3125 kbits/s peak data-rate when a 16-QAM modulation is used, having all the
subcarriers active. Given the scope of the paper, the experimental validation did not cover a throughput comparison
of the FBMC and CP-OFDM DL receivers. A relevant implementation making use of the PHYDYAS filter together
with a comprehensive experimental benchmarking can be found in [17]. The study provides BER performance
metrics together with complementary qualitative results of the respective CP-OFDM and FBMC receivers.
 a) Effect of different spectral-hole sizes in the broadband DL transmissions observed for a wide range of received signal power values.

The Tetrapol
communication is lost
when the coexisting
CP-OFDM signal uses
a similar subcarrier
power level

CP-OFDM:
Increasing the hole-size
renders a minimal gain
(~4 dB)

FBMC:
Increasing the hole-size
brings a gain up to ~24 dB When compared to CP-OFDM
(same hole-size) the FBMC
gain grows up to ~30 dB

b) Effect of the spectral-hole size when considering a fixed received power of -98 dBm at the TETRAPOL terminal.
Figure 4: Performance of the TETRAPOL terminal in coexistence with the broadband DL signal transmissions (FBMC or CP-OFDM), when
providing spectral holes of different sizes and subcarrier power-level ratios.
 a) Performance of the PMR terminal evaluated in relation to the interference received from the in-band broadband transmissions.

b) Functional validation of the SDR-based FBMC receiver conducted in terms of BER performance.
Figure 5: Experimental evaluation of the FBMC-PMR cohabitation scenario considering different mobile channels and a fixed 30 kHz spectral-
hole in the broadband transmission.

VII. CONCLUSIONS
FBMC modulations are a promising physical layer technology that facilitates spectral coexistence in currently
used frequency bands. Contrary to classical LTE-based CP-OFDM waveforms, FBMC signals are very well
contained in the spectrum domain, providing at the same time excellent interference protection to adjacent and in-
band transmissions. Their spectral agility can facilitate the efficient reuse of valuable frequency bands allocated
below 1GHz, which present very attractive propagation conditions and are clearly appropriate for PPDR
applications. This paper has illustrated the implementation feasibility of broadband FBMC signals in spectral
coexistence with legacy TETRAPOL services. The benefits of FBMC in terms of interference protection have been
experimentally quantified using a complex hardware setup. Two different paradigms of real-time SDR design were
adopted, highlighting the rationale and benefits of using an FPGA-assisted SDR design approach. In this respect, the
paper advocates the need of expanding the classic SDR paradigm in order to exploit compact and heterogeneous
baseband processing solutions that are able to satisfy the concurrent requirements for computationally-intensive DSP
and programming flexibility of currently proposed 5G systems.
Apart from the evaluated FBMC PMR coexistence scenario, the interference protection benefits can be directly
mapped to those 5G spectrum cohabitation use cases that share similar functional and operational conditions. An
experimental evaluation of such 5G scenarios would have to dimension and condition the FBMC waveform
particulars (e.g., ideal size of the spectral holes, power relation of the coexisting transmissions). Therefore, the same
experimental study would have to be repeated in a case-by-case basis. Despite the fact that the presented work has
focused on a single spectrum cohabitation scenario, the reported interference protection benefits are encouraging the
adoption of FBMC waveforms in order to exploit underutilized fragmented spectrum. This is particularly relevant
for primary critical communication systems considering that interference protection is the prime focus for them,
even when the throughput enhancement observed at the receiver of the secondary coexisting system (FBCM or CP-
OFDM in our case) is minimal.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was partially supported by the European Commission under projects EMPhAtiC (GA 318362) and
NEWCOM# (GA 318306); by the Generalitat de Catalunya under grant agreement (GA) 2014 SGR 1551; and by
the Spanish Government under project TEC2014-58341-C4-4-R.

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Results and Standardization Strategy", EuCNC 2014, Bologna, Italy.
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Microsystems (Elsevier), Volume 38, Issue 8, Part A, November 2014, Pages 743-753.
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Sony, Ericsson, TU Dresden, Huawei, u-blox, Neul, Verizon Wireless, NSN, Vodafone, March 2014, Available online:
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Figure 1. The superior spectral occupancy and efficiency of the proposed FBMC scheme when compared to CP-OFDM (LTE) under the same
PMR coexistence use case scenario.
 TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE MAIN FEATURES OF CP-OFDM AND FBMC
Frequency Spectral In-band Combination Equalization PAPR Latency
containment Efficiency FDMA with MIMO
CP-OFDM Poor Suboptimal Unfeasible Trivial Trivial Poor Low
FBMC Very good Optimal Natural Complex Complex Configurable High
 centralized PHY-layer control
RS OFDM CP
pseudorandom insertion modulation insertion
bit sequence (OFDM (OFDM block) (OFDM block)
generator block) PMR-
symbol
MUX
(ITU PN20) aware

DEMUX

MUX

MUX
DEMUX
hardware-accelerated
mapping quiet-slot DSP functions
creation
scrambling
pilot OQAM FBMC
(OFDM block)
insertion processing modulation

FPGA-based SoC
analog to digital down- RF CHANNEL RF up- digital to analog
conversion conversion front-end front-end conversion conversion

rate blockwise
OQAM post
conversion processing large FFT multiply H(f) small iFFT equalisation select bins
processing
384/625 with overlap

carrier
CFO and
frequency channel
frame-start
offset estimation
estimation
correction
General Purpose Computer

sync seq 02 CFO estimate

input signal
1024- select
frequency
point samples ∆φ/∆t
192 640 192 mask odd
iFFT 193-1024
192 640 192 640 new sync seq E2
form abs
overlapping blocks 192 640 192 samples
1024- select
point samples
1024-point input select iFFT 193-1024
large FFT 1024-
FFT buffer used sync seq 01
point
1024 samples
FFT frequency 1024- select
multiply by even samples (1-584) abs
mask even point samples
per subcarrier processing

filter functions odd iFFT 193-1024

sync seq E1 find
16-point 16-point 16-point peak
small iFFT
iFFT iFFT ··· iFFT
192 640 192 1024- select
192 640 192 point samples approve
use 10 out of iFFT 193-1024 peak
16 samples
10/16 10/16 ··· 10/16 192 640 192

overlap multiply by multiply by coherent calculate

OQAM post timing offset
processing
OQAM OQAM ··· OQAM add input data frequency sign of data combination
mask for preamble of vectors 3
odd and symbols half symbols adjust
per subcarrier output signals even apart input buffer
subcarriers
FBMC processing joint synchronization and framing processing

Figure 2. A generic block diagram of the FBMC transmitter and receiver systems (top), including a detailed view of key receiver functions
(bottom).
 VECTOR SIGNAL GENERATOR - PMR TRANSMITTER CHANNEL EMULATOR PMR RECEIVER
(I/Q vector playback & signal conversion) (commercial terminal + custom SW)
CH CONFIG.
BOX
··· I/Q TX2
TO RF NB_PMR_RF
serial
Matlab-generated cable
NB I/Q signal 382.53 MHz

COMBINED_SIGNAL_RF
Combined RF signal
(12.5 kHz BW)
NB RF signal

382.88 MHz
BROADBAND TRANSMITTER
(SoC-based FBMC/CP-OFDM transmitter) RF STEP
ATTENUATORS
Xilinx ZC706 board RF 2

Zynq XC7Z045 SoC RF 1

382.88 MHz
(1.4 MHz BW;

T
30 kHz hole)
BB RF signal

Custom RF_IN RF_OUT

Linux
VHDL/C
OS
code General Purpose Computer BROADBAND RECEIVER
(SDR-based FBMC receiver)
FMC bus IRIS
AD FMCOMMS3-EBZ FFTW3 USRP N210
Linux Custom C
board OS code
library RF 1
AD9361 RFIC BB_FBMC_RF
constellation
plotting & BER Gigabit Ethernet
calculation COMBINED_SIGNAL_I/Q

Figure 3. A representation of the complete experimental setup.

 a) Effect of different spectral-hole sizes in the broadband DL transmissions observed for a wide range of received signal power values.

The Tetrapol
communication is lost
when the coexisting
CP-OFDM signal uses
a similar subcarrier
power level

CP-OFDM:
Increasing the hole-size
renders a minimal gain
(~4 dB)

FBMC:
Increasing the hole-size
brings a gain up to ~24 dB When compared to CP-OFDM
(same hole-size) the FBMC
gain grows up to ~30 dB

b) Effect of the spectral-hole size when considering a fixed received power of -98 dBm at the TETRAPOL terminal.
Figure 4: Performance of the TETRAPOL terminal in coexistence with the broadband DL signal transmissions (FBMC or CP-OFDM), when
providing spectral holes of different sizes and subcarrier power-level ratios.
 a) Performance of the PMR terminal evaluated in relation to the interference received from the in-band broadband transmissions.

b) Functional validation of the SDR-based FBMC receiver conducted in terms of BER performance.
Figure 5: Experimental evaluation of the FBMC-PMR cohabitation scenario considering different mobile channels and a fixed 30 kHz spectral-
hole in the broadband transmission.
 Oriol Font-Bach received his M.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering from Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona (UAB) in 2004 and the Ph.D. at the Department of Signal Theory and Communications
(TSC) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 2013. In 2006 he also obtained a Master in
Design of Intregrated Circuits from UAB. He joined the CTTC in November 2006, where he currently
holds a researcher position, as part of the PHYCOM department. During this time, he has participated
in several public-funded national and European R&D projects. His main work revolves around
optimized digital design techniques targeting FPGA/SoC devices, hardware-software co-design and real-time
implementation and validation of advanced baseband Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and systems for
modern and future wireless communications technologies. His current research interest areas include FPGA-assisted
SDR, hardware-software co-design and dynamically reconfigurable PHY-layer implementations towards energy and
spectral efficient 5G systems.

Nikolaos Bartzoudis is senior Researcher and leader of the PHYCOM department at CTTC. He
received his Ph.D. degree in dependable embedded systems from Loughborough University (UK
2006). Before joining CTTC (January 2008), Nikolaos has worked as Research Assistant
(Loughborough University, 2001-2003) and Senior Research Officer (University of Essex, 2005-2007).
At CTTC his duties as technical team leader include FPGA development and experimental testing of
spectral and energy efficient 4G and 5G wireless communication technologies. His research interests include SDR,
high-speed digital design techniques, hardware-software co-design, reconfigurable radio and energy-aware PHY-
layer design. Dr. Bartzoudis has been/is principal investigator in 3 R&D projects and participated in more than 10
others (funded by the EC, Spanish government and EPSRC). Nikolaos has supervised M.Sc. and Ph.D. students,
gave invited lectures, participated in industrial panels and coordinated live demonstrations of prototypes in various
events.

Xavier Mestre (S'96, M'03, SM'09) received the MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1997
and 2002 respectively and the Licenciate Degree in Mathematics in 2011 from the same
University. From January 1998 to December 2002, he was with UPC's Communications Signal
Processing Group, where he worked as a Research Assistant. In January 2003 he joined the
Telecommunications Technological Center of Catalonia (CTTC), where he currently holds a
position as a Senior Research Associate in the area of Radio Communications. During this time, he has actively
participated in multiple European projects and several contracts with the local industry. He has been the coordinator
of the European FP7 EMPhAtiC project (2012-15). Currently, he is head of the Advanced Signal and Information
Processing Department. He has served as Technical Chair of EUSIPCO 2011, General Co-Chair of the European
Wireless 2014 and general chair of several seasonal schools. He will serve as general co-chair of ICASSP 2020 in
Barcelona. He has been associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 2007-2011, 2015-present and
associate co-editor of the special issue on Cooperative Communications in Wireless Networks at the EURASIP
Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking. He is an elected member of the IEEE Sensor Array and
Multichannel Signal Processing Technical Committee and member of the EURASIP Special Area Team on
Theoretical and Methodological Trends in Signal Processing.

David López-Bueno received his MSc degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Technical
University of Catalonia (UPC) in 2005. Between 2003 and 2007 he worked as RF design engineer at
Mier Comunicaciones and Alcatel Alenia Space España participating in the design, implementation and
validation of RF/uW modules and MMIC devices for satellite payloads. In the years following he
joined the CTTC as Research Engineer where he contributed to several national and European publicly
funded projects by building multi-band RF Transceivers and lab demonstrators validating 4G/5G MIMO
OFDM/FBMC-based schemes and the coexistence between heterogeneous systems in spectrum shared scenarios,
and by conceiving wideband high-end modular radios. At CTTC, he has also been involved in industrial projects
assessing the risk of interference between FS and FSS systems and, in the last years, aiming at experimental
benchmarking of wideband PA linearization techniques for wireless backhaul microwave wideband radios through
development of DPD and CFR HW demonstrators for RF/uW/mmW applications. David is coordinating the Radio
Technologies Lab activities at CTTC since 2009 and he is currently pursuing a PhD in digital linearization
techniques at UPC.
 Philippe Mège is AIRBUS DS Senior Expert and is in charge of the DSP SW and TBS Department for
AIRBUS Defence and Space. He was graduated from Ecole Nationale des Telecommunications (today
telecom Paris Tech), a high French engineering school, in 1980. He has strong experience in the
domain of signal processing for radio communications systems. He is working with AIRBUS group (ex
EADS group) since 1988 on different systems including GSM, PMR systems, CDMA systems, OFDM
systems, WiMAX, LTE. He was previously working between 1981 and 1988 with TRT, a Philips subsidiary, in the
domain of military radio communications. His main fields of interest are mobile communications, antenna
processing, interference management, broadband systems based on OFDM and Filter Banks, Power Amplifier
linearization, Mobile radio systems, Radio coexistence. He is representing AIRBUS Defence and Space at CEPT
and French regulation body (ANFR). He is involved in European projects (EMPhAtiC, SAN, CORTIF) and in
French national projects (RECOSS, SOAPS2, PROFIL). He is author or co-author of more than 22 patents.

Laurent Martinod completed his engineering degree in 1994 from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des
Télécommunications de Bretagne (Télécom Bretagne), Brest, France. He is currently working as Signal
Processing and Digital RF Studies Engineer in AIRBUS Defence and Space. Since 2006, his current
studies include IEEE WIMAX 802.16 and 3GPP LTE analysis, and system simulation building, as well
as antenna diversity processing methods or multi-user interference cancellation and he has been
involved in the following cooperative projects (SMART, EMPHATIC, SAN, INFOP, SOAPS2, PROFIL). From
1999 to 2006 (AIRBUS Defence and Space), he was an analog RF engineer and participated in the development of
the radio part of Tetrapol PMR products (Rx and Tx RF boards for handheld, mobile and base station products).
From 1996 to 1999 (Communications & Systems Group), he was involved in the development of French Télépéage
Electronic Toll system. He is author or co-author of 7 patents.

Vidar Ringset obtained his degree Sivilingeniør (M.Sc.) in Electrical Engineering at the Norwegian
Institute of Technology (NTH) in 1977. From 1978 to 1983, he was with NERA, Bergen,
Norway, as a Design Engineer and Project Leader for the first generation of digital high
capacity radio relay systems. Since 1983, he has been with SINTEF ICT, Trondheim, as Scientist
(1878), Senior Scientist (1995), and Chief Scientist (1997). His recent work involves the EU funded
projects PHYDYAS and EMPhAtiC. Currently he is working on demodulation algorithms for high rate satellite
receivers.

Tor André Myrvoll (S’95–A’01–M’03–SM’12) was born in Alstadhaug, Norway, in 1970. He

received the M.Sc. and Dr.Eng. degrees from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in
1997 and 2002 respectively. He has held visiting researcher positions at the Multimedia
Communications Research Laboratory at Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ., the Spoken Language
Technology laboratory of ATR, Kyoto, Japan, and the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo.
Currently, he is a Research Scientist at the Communication Systems group, SINTEF ICT, Trondheim, Norway. His
research interests include statistical signal processing, machine learning and wireless communications.