BASIC THEORIES AND KEY TECHNOLOGIES IN NEXT GENERATION NETWORKS
A Survey: Several Technologies of Non-Orthogonal
Transmission for 5G
Tao Yunzheng*1,2, Liu Long1,2, Liu Shang1,2, Zhang Zhi1,2
1
State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications,
Beijing 100876, China
2
State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, China
Abstract: One key advantage of 4G OFDM
system is the relatively simple receiver im-
plementation due to the orthogonal resource
allocation. However, from sum-capacity and
spectral efficiency points of view, orthogonal
systems are never the achieving schemes. With
the rapid development of mobile communi-
cation systems, a novel concept of non-or-
thogonal transmission for 5G mobile commu-
nications has attracted researches all around
the world. In this trend, many new multiple
access schemes and waveform modulation
technologies were proposed. In this paper,
some promising ones of them were discussed
which include Non-orthogonal Multiple Ac-
cess (NOMA), Sparse Code Multiple Access
(SCMA), Multi-user Shared Access (MUSA),
Pattern Division Multiple Access (PDMA)
and some main new waveforms including
Filter-bank based Multicarrier (FBMC),
Universal Filtered Multi-Carrier (UFMC),
Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing
(GFDM). By analyzing and comparing fea-
tures of these technologies, a research direc-
tion of guiding on future 5G multiple access
and waveform are given.
Keywords: non-orthogonal transmission;
multiple access; waveform modulation; sur-
vey; 5G
1 China Communications October 2015
I. INTRODUCTION
Multiple access technology derived from the
pioneering contributions of Shannon[1,2] is a
key feature for modern wireless communica-
tions. With the exponentially growing demand
of users, such as in cellular system, in order to
achieve the goal of anybody who at anywhere
can communicate with anyone at any time by
any communication scheme, numerous re-
searchers have been focusing on the multiple
access technology design. 1G multiple access
technology is FDMA (Frequency Division
Multiple Access)[3] based on the analog fre-
quency modulation. With the arrival of the
digital age, TDMA (Time Division Multiple
Access)[4] based on the digital modulation
emerged. Although 2G employed both FDMA
and TDMA for multiple access, it was gen-
erally known as TDMA due to the novelty
of time multiplexing. 3G is CDMA (Code
Division Multiple Access)[5] era, which
makes use of the orthogonality of M spreading
sequences to solve the problem of massive
user access. Due to the significant problem
of spectrum resources scarcity and dramatic
increase of number of users, 4G introduced
OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Mul-
tiplexing) on the basis of CDMA, proposed
OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access)[6] to improve the spectral ef-
ficiency and solve the problem of massive user
connections. It can be said that multiple access
technology of each generation communication
system underwent tremendous changes, to a
large extent they were each generations defin-
ing technical feature respectively.
Mobile communications are developing
rapidly because of the tremendous improve-
ment of living standards of human beings.
Though the successive generations of mobile
systems improved the service quality millions
of times in certain aspects, peoples desire for
higher-performance mobile communications
is endless. The user peak data rate and aver-
age cell spectral efficiency are no longer the
only requirements, instead, user experience
rate, number of connections, latency, high
reliability, energy efficiency, etc. are all part
of metrics for the system design[7]. In 2014,
IMT-2020 Promotion Group proposed in the
white paper 5G vision and demand[8] that the
future mobile communication system (5G)
will solve 1000 times or more the need for
greater capacity, 10-100 times the mass device
connections, 5-15 times improvement of the
spectral efficiency compared to 4G, spectrum
resources scarcity problems etc.. Although the
data transmission rates of 4G is up to hundreds
of megabit per second, sometimes even up to
Gigabit per second, which almost enables to
meet the requirements of broadband mobile
communication applications in next period of
time. With the continued growth in popularity
of smart terminals and requirements of new
mobile business, it will still be difficult to
meet the future demand by the current trans-
mission rates of wireless communications. In
5G networks, OFDM (4G) may have some
weak points which could become more pro-
nounced:
OFDM needs to insert a cyclic prefix to
 to transmit their messages are loosely synchro-
combat multi-path fading, resulting in a
waste of radio resources.
It is very sensitive to the carrier frequency
 nals) and to use cheaper components (e.g. os-
offset and has a high peak to average ratio.
It demands each sub-carrier must have the
 as the principle of OFDM hinders the efficient
same bandwidth and must be synchronized
China Communications October 2015
and orthogonal between the sub-carriers so
that it cannot flexibly use the spectrum re- In this paper, prom-
sources. ising non-or thogo-
OFDM technology uses a square wave as nal multiple access

schemes and non-or-
the baseband waveform, resulting in the
thogonal waveform
larger side lobes, so that the interference modulation tech-
between adjacent carriers is very serious niques for 5G mobile
when the synchronization of each sub-carri- communications are
er cannot be strictly guaranteed[9-11]. reviewed and com-
Therefore, 5G system needs to put forward pared, and the future
development of these
a new type of multiple access technology to
technologies is ana-
provide higher spectral efficiency and increase lyzed as well.
the access capability and capacity of the sys-
tem[12]. Driven by this goal, many researchers
proposed new multiple access schemes. In this
paper, a number of promising multiple access
schemes which might become 5G standard
candidates are introduced and analyzed, their
respective basic principles, advantages, disad-
vantages etc. are described. The largest com-
mon denominator of these schemes is based on
the thought of non-orthogonal transmission.
Among these, some alternative non-orthogonal
multiple access schemes attracts considerable
attention since they can serve multiple users
in the same frequency and time resources via
power domain and/or code domain multiplex-
ing to enhance the system access performance.
Non-orthogonal transmission thought not
only changes multiple access methods, but
also is bound to promote the OFDM wave-
form to produce revolutionary changes. As we
experience with 4G networks today, typically,
filtering needs to be introduced to the trans-
mitter or receiver side to achieve coexistence.
But doing so, chances are that orthogonal will
be forfeit. In addition, everyone knows that
Machine Type Communications (MTC) and
the Internet of Things (IoT) will be signifi-
cantly important application for 5G mobile
communication systems[13]. The IoT devices
nized relying on open-loop mechanisms (e.g.
making use of downlink synchronization sig-
cillators with relaxed requirements)[10]. And
use of spectrum resources, OFDM is no longer
2
 a waveform design principle for 5G mobile
communication systems, the need of a new
type of waveform for 5G is imminent. A future
waveform should have three main proper-
ties[14]: the first is flexibility, so that different
applications can be addressed by a single solu-
tion with different parameter settings instead
of multiple solutions. The second is especially
useful to control the impact of interference
among multiple users and between systems in
adjacent frequency bands. The last is to guar-
antee a harmonious coexistence with other
technologies (e.g. new waveforms should still
be capable of MIMO), non-synchronization
and channel estimation should be preferably
easy to implement. This paper will describe
three new waveforms which are all candidate
waveform schemes for the air interface of 5G
networks. Some analyses and contrasts will be
drawn as well.
The rest of this paper is organized as fol-
lows: Section II introduces and analyzes four
alternative multiple access schemes, followed
by a table to summarize each schemes fea-
tures and some comments on future multiple
access technology. Section III introduces and
analyzes three new waveform modulation
schemes. Section IV concludes the paper.
II. ALTERNATIVE MULTIPLE ACCESS
Currently the key multiple access schemes
are still under discussion, all companies are
proposing their technology solutions to obtain
industry recognition, so that they have the
right to speak in striving setting 5G standards.
Power
Freq.
SIC of UE 2 UE 1 signal UE 2 signal
signal decoding decoding
BS
UE1 UE2
High Low
Received SINR
Fig.1 NOMA applying SIC at UE receiver in downlink
3 China Communications October 2015
Next we discuss some of the multiple access
schemes, which are promising to become the
5G standard candidates.
2.1 NOMA
To enhance the spectrum efficiency, a non-or-
thogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme uti-
lizing interference cancellation was proposed
by NTT DOCOMO, which is a promising
candidate as a novel cellular multiple access
scheme for future radio access (FRA)[15-19].
Different from traditional orthogonal trans-
mission schemes, NOMA utilizes non-orthog-
onal transmission on the transmitter side so
that it would intentionally introduce intra-cell
and/or inter-cell interference. On the receiver
side, multi-user signal separation is conducted
based on successive interference cancellation
(SIC)[20]. The basic principle of NOMA is to
boost further the spectrum efficiency by in-
creasing the complexity of receiver. With the
evolution of device processing capabilities, it
will become possible to use NOMA in future
practical systems.
There are two key technologies contained
in NOMA. 1) On the user equipment (UE)
receiver side, NOMA utilizes SIC to conduct
multi-user detection as Fig.1 illustrated. Like
methods to eliminate multiple access inter-
ference in CDMA, it is a gradual interference
elimination strategy. Judging the user individ-
ually in the received signal and processing sig-
nal amplitude recovery, then the multiple ac-
cess interference (MAI) produced by this user
could be subtracted from the received signal.
Performing the same operation again for the
rest of the users eventually could remove all
of the MAI[21]. 2) NOMA is a multiplexing
scheme that utilizes the power domain which
is not sufficiently utilized in previous systems.
Non-orthogonality is intentionally introduced
via power-domain user multiplexing. In fact,
user demultiplexing is ensured via the alloca-
tion of large power difference between paired
users and the application of SIC in power-do-
main. It is different from the simple power
control, but power distribution by the base
station is conducted according to the related
algorithm[20]. 2.2 SCMA
Some achievements about the NOMA tech-
Besides flexible multiplexing of the time and
nology are made by foreign researchers, e.g.
frequency domain, in order to further im-
Anass Benjebbour, et al. provided system-lev-
prove spectrum efficiency, it is reasonable to
el performance of NOMA taking into account
come up with the spatial and code domain.
practical aspects of the cellular system and
Though MIMO technology was proposed in
showed that the system-level performance
LTE and will certainly be carried forward in
achieved by NOMA is higher by more than
5G through more antennas, code domain re-
30% compared to OMA (Orthogonal Multi-
sources are not fully utilized. Just right in this
ple Access)[20], including user throughput,
way, Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA)
etc. Mohammed Al-Imari, et al. proposed a
is a new frequency domain non-orthogonal
NOMA scheme for uplink that significantly
multiple-access technique which is put for-
improved the system performance in terms of
ward by Huawei. It invites sparse codebook
spectral efficiency and fairness comparing to
and realizes three-fold the spectrum efficiency
OFDMA[22], especially the spectral efficiency
improvement by code domain multiple access.
improved by nearly 20%. Japans NTT DoCo-
At the same time, it collects the advantages
Mo Company proposed a relatively systematic
of Low-Density Signatures (LDS)[27,28]
scheme in 2010 (e.g. NOMA access methods
which is a version of CDMA with low density
will be used in 800MHz and 2GHz band mac-
spreading sequences allowing a near optimal
ro cells). The company validated the effect of
message passing algorithm(MPA) receiver
using NOMA in urban areas by simulation,
with practically feasible complexity to be tak-
and confirmed that this method could enable
en advantage of[29], so SCMA still enjoys the
wireless access macro cell total throughput
low complexity reception technique. And it
increased by 50%[23].
also makes a lot of innovations and improve-
Compared to CDMA and OFDMA, NOMA
ments in order to reduce the cost of signaling
utilizes orthogonal transmission between the
overhead and latency and improve spectral ef-
sub channels, theres no apparent near-far
ficiency and then meet the needs of 5G mobile
effect which is obsession in 3G and the MAI
communication systems[30,31]. In SCMA, the
problems are less severe. As not requiring
procedure of bit to QAM symbol mapping and
fine feedback signaling from the user side or
spreading are combined together and incom-
channel state information (CSI), NOMA is
ing bits are directly mapped to a multidimen-
more easily to respond to various and chang-
sional code work of an SCMA codebook set.
ing link states by means of utilizing adaptive
Each layer or user has its dedicated codebook.
modulation and coding (AMC)[24] and pow-
Shaping gain of a multi-dimensional constel-
er-domain multiplexing technology, especially
lation[32,33] is one of the main sources of
in high-speed mobile environment[25]. The
the performance improvement in comparison
most important is that the same channel can
with the simple repetition of QAM symbols
be shared by multiple users, thus NOMA can
in LDS[34]. A. Bayesteh, et al. introduced the
improve the spectrum efficiency at the same
blind multi-user detection algorithm[35] which
transmission speed compared to 4G[26]. On
could simultaneously detect user status and
the other hand, NOMA is still facing some
user carrying information to support massive
problems in technical implementation. Firstly,
connectivity for grant-free multiple-access
the non-orthogonal transmission receiver is
transmission mode in future wireless networks
rather complex, SIC receiver design requires
based SCMA.
improvement in signal processing chip tech-
Because SCMA has many advantages, and
nology. Secondly, the power-domain multi-
is relatively easy to be implemented, the mul-
plexing technology is on the research stage,
tiple access techniques designed and improved
and there is still plenty of work to do.

China Communications October 2015 4

 based on it can absolutely be applied into the 2.3 MUSA
uplink and downlink of 5G wireless networks.,
Multi-user Shared Access (MUSA) is a 5G
H. Nikopour, et al. firstly introduced the op-
multiple access scheme proposed by ZTE
timization of overloading factor along with
which utilizes the characteristics of good
modulation-coding levels of layers of SCMA,
spreading sequences and advanced SIC(-
then demonstrated SCMA is developed to
Successive Interference Cancelation) receiv-
enable multi-user SCMA (MU-SCMA) for
er[39-41]. In MUSA, multiple user data are
downlink wireless access. User pairing, power
respectively spread by the special spreading
sharing, rate adjustment, and scheduling algo-
sequences, then each users data spread are
rithms were designed to improve the downlink
overlapped to be transmitted, it uses advanced
cell throughput and coverage over OFDMA
SIC receiver to demodulate and recover the
by 5% and 8%, respectively[31]. In[30], the
data of each user at the receiving end. The
uplink contention-based SCMA scheme as
basic principle is described in fig.2. Most tra-
a promising technology for 5G wireless net-
ditional communication technologies (e.g. 4G)
works is proposed for data transmission with
use orthogonal methods to distinguish users,
low signaling overhead, low delay, and sup-
that is, different users are assigned different
port of massive connectivity. Finally Kelvin
time, sub-carrier, or space, which could avoid
Au., et al. demonstrated that contention-based
overlapping each other[42,43]. However,
SCMA can provide around 2.8 times gain over
MUSA assigns a new spreading sequence for
contention-based OFDMA[36] in terms of
each user, then these users are assigned at the
supported active users.
same time, sub-carrier, or space. Compared
As a novel multiple-access modulation
with the traditional code division multiple
scheme, SCMA is proposed which has advan-
access, the spreading sequence assigned by
tages of CDMA[37] and LDS as well as some
MUSA can be non-orthogonal, which is just
potential gain, such as multi-dimensional con-
for spreading spectrum. Consequently, MUSA
stellation shaping gain. Even though the struc-
needs to make use of the technology of SIC re-
ture of the code is well defined, the design and
ceiver to distinguish the different users signal.
optimization of the code are challenging. A
For instance, for two users, one is near from
sub-optimal design methodology is proposed
the base station while the other one is remote,
here based on a multi-stage optimization ap-
the traditional communication method obtains
proach[38].
the maximum system capacity only in the case

Signal are spread by

Signal
UE1 a specially designed UE1
modulation
sequence

Signal are spread by

Signal
UE2 a specially designed UE2
modulation
sequence

Combination
SIC
and
reception
Transmission

Signal are spread by

Signal
UE3 a specially designed UE3
modulation
sequence

Fig.2 Multi-user Shared Access (MUSA)

5 China Communications October 2015

which almost completely sacrifices the remote
user. However, MUSA ensures the great sys-
tem capacity, the balance between the users
at the same time in a relatively relaxed con-
dition[44]. The characteristics of MUSA lie
mainly on the system performance improved
significantly and the complexity controlled
flexibly, it could support a large number of
users access, moreover does not need synchro-
nization in principle which is beneficial to im-
prove the battery life. Therefore, the technol-
ogy of MUSA uplink is very suitable for the
Internet of Things (IoT) network application
[45-47].
MUSA uplink access uses the innovative
complex multi-domain code design and ad-
vanced multi-user detection based on SIC to
ensure that the system supports high reliability
access for more users at the same time-fre-
quency resource, and can simplify the process
of resource scheduling in the access process.
Therefore MUSA greatly simplifies the system
implementation, shortens the access time of
mass access and reduces energy consumption
of terminals. MUSA downlink access uses
new type of the superposition coding and the
superposition symbol expansion technology
to provide higher capacity than the orthogonal
multiple access downlink transmission, simpli-
fy the implementation of terminal and reduce
the energy consumption of the terminal, which
is similar to MUSA uplink access[48].
Though MUSA is a potential multiple
access scheme for 5G network, it is difficult
to find relevant information about some key
technologies details. Such as mapping method
of spreading sequences, criteria of pattern se-
lection, system capacity changes by number of
users increased etc. We hope to read relative
To achieve the total optimization of multiple
user communication system, PDMA takes
joint/holistic design of SIC-amenable pattern
at the transmitter and low-complexity qua-
si-ML SIC detection[51] at the receiver. At
transmitter, multiple users are distinguished
by non-orthogonal characteristic pattern in
single or multiple signal domains, such as
power domain, space domain and code do-
main. Especially, multiple users have irregular
diversity degree to aim for SIC amenable
detection at receiver. At receiver, multiple
users can get equivalent diversity degree after
SIC amenable detection (see Fig.3). By this
way, a balance between diversity degree and
multiplexing can be achieved for PDMA.
PDMA can be applied into variable scenarios,
including typical macro-cell coverage, hotspot
& indoor access, and MTC-type service, etc.
From present research results[52], PDMA can
improve capacity above 2-3 times in uplink
system, and improve the spectral efficiency
above 1.5 times in downlink system. On the
other hand, PDMA is still faced with some key
problems to be solved in future applications,
such as how to design patterns at transmitter to
distinguish users more easily, how to simplify
receiver, how to combine PDMA with MIMO
to design space domain coding pattern, etc.
2.5 Summary
Table I describes the features of the four mul-
tiple access schemes discussed above. It can
be apparently obtained that all four schemes
achieve spectral efficiency improvement and
P1
P2
Power domain

SIC
papers or reports of these techniques in the fu-
s1,1 s1,2

Pattern of UE1
s 1,4

* * * s1,12,1
s+
s1,2 s1,1 s1,3 s1,22,2
s+ s1,42,4
s+

s1,5
s1,3 s1,1 s**
s+
1,22,2
s**
s
1,12,1 s**
s+
1,32,3
s1,52,5
s+
s1,32,3
s+ s1,12,1
s+

and UE2
s2,1 s2,2

+ UE2
s*2,2 s *2,1
s*2,3
s2,5 s2,3 s2,1

ture. Space domain

-
Dec
UE1 UE2 UE1

2.4 PDMA Codestream1

Codestream2
Code domain
SIC
Codestream3
UE4
Pattern Division Multiple Access (PDMA) UE3
u3
+
-
UE4 UE3 Dec
transmitter
[49] is a novel none orthogonal multiple ac- Pattern of UE3
and UE4
cess scheme proposed by Datang based on receiver

their former research work on SAMA (SIC

Amenable Multiple Access)[50] technology. Fig.3 PDMA technical framework on both transmitter and receiver sides

China Communications October 2015 6

 system capacity enhancement as well. Mean-
while, each of them should respectively ad-
dress interference problems and some complex
technologies which are difficult to implement.
The academic and industrial have proposed
a lot of multiple access technologies so far.
We can classify some of them according to the
following three ways: 1) according to different
domains; 2) according to different domains
combination mode; 3) the introduction of new
technologies. The classification is shown in
Table II below. Combined with previously
proposed multiple-access techniques, the fur-
ther study of new multiple access techniques
for 5G could be considered from the following
directions: 1) other domains should be ex-
plored to realize multiple access technology,
e.g. NOMA proposed by DoCoMo is based on
power domain multiplexing. 2) The new way
to distinguish mass of users can be studied,
such as SCMA proposed by Huawei, PDMA
proposed by Datang, which are both 5G prom-
ising multiple access techniques candidates. 3)
The combination of different domains could
be considered to improve the utilization of
resources, such as MC-CDMA (OFDM and
CDMA), SD-CDMA(SDMA and CDMA),
etc. 4) Since many new technologies were pro-
posed constantly, some of them could be intro-
duced into multiple access techniques on the
basis of the original time-frequency domain.
For instance, OFMDA introduces OFDM on
the basis of FDMA, MIMO-SDMA introduces
Massive MIMO on the basis of SDMA.
III. NEW WAVEFORM
5G multiple access technology is being stud-
ied prevalently and has made great progress.
At the same time, it is obviously that the new
waveform study is required to support 5G
multiple access technology, or 5G requires the
joint design of waveforms and multiple access
technologies. Therefore, we introduce three
new kinds of promising waveforms for 5G
mobile communication systems[9], we hope
our work is helpful to look for a new kind of
waveform applied into 5G.
3.1 FBMC
Compared to OFMD technology[61,62], al-
though Filter-bank based Multicarrier (FBMC)

Table I Features of the four multiple access schemes

Features
Multiple Key technologies Advantages Disadvantages
Access
(1) no apparent near-far effect
(1) receiver is rather complex
(2) improve uplink spectral efficiency by nearly
(1) SIC detection (2) the power-domain multiplex-
NOMA 20%
(2) power domain multiplexing ing technology is on the research
(3) improve downlink throughput by more than
stage
30%
(1) low density spreading
(1) improve spectral efficiency 3 times or more
(2) High-dimensional modulation (1) difficult to achieve the design
(2) uplink system capacity upgrade around 2.8
technique and optimization of the code
SCMA times over OFDM
(3) near-optimal detection feasible (2) interference between users
(3) downlink cell throughput and coverage gain
through iterative message passing al- increasing
over OFDMA by 5% and 8%, respectively
gorithm (MPA)
(1) SIC detection (1) interference between users
(1) low block error rate (BLER)
(2) multi-codes of complex domain increasing
MUSA (2) supporting large numbers of users access
(3) superposition coding and superpo- (2) difficult to achieve the design
(3) improve the spectral efficiency
sition symbol expansion technology of spread symbols
(1) joint/holistic design of SIC amena- (1) improving capacity (1) difficult to achieve the design
ble pattern; above 2-3 times in uplink system and optimization of the pattern
PDMA
(2) low-complexity quasi ML SIC de- (2) improving the spectral (2) interference between users
tection efficiency above 1.5 times in downlink system increasing

7 China Communications October 2015

Table II The classification of some existing multiple access techniques
According to different domains According to different domains combination mode
TD-SCDMA[53] ;
FDMA; TDMA; CDMA; SD-CDMA
NOMA; SCMA; MUSA; (Space Division-Code Division Multiple Access)[54]
PDMA(Pattern Division Multiple Access)
relies on dividing the spectrum into multiple
orthogonal sub-bands, it applies a filtering
functionality to each sub-carrier to achieve
multi-carrier transmission (see Fig.4). Since
the FBMC side-lobes become weaker than
OFDM, the inter-carrier interference issue
caused by the side-lobes becomes very small,
and there is no need to insert the cycle prefix
or the guard interval, so that it can greatly im-
prove the efficiency of the frequency[63,64].
Since the carriers no longer must be orthog-
onal, FBMC has the flexibility to control the
bandwidth of each subcarrier and the degree
of overlap between them, it could also flexibly
avoid the interference between adjacent sub-
carriers to a certain extent and facilitate the
use of some scattered spectrum resources[65].
Since the FBMC system sub-carriers no longer
need to be synchronized, the system employed
FBMC has ability to solve the problem of pos-
sible synchronization errors and dispersion.
Therefore, synchronization, channel estima-
tion and detection can be processed separately
on each sub-carrier[66-68].
FBMC is considered as a candidate
multi-carrier waveform for 5G mobile com-
munication systems which has attracted more
and more researchers, and now FBMC has
been used in many fields. Sun-Young Jung, et
al. proposed an adaptively modulated optical
filter bank multicarrier with offset quadrature
amplitude modulation-based side lobes sup-
pression, and verified both the improvements
in signal performance and spectral efficien-
cy compared with OFDM in a multi-send-
er-supported optical network after a 50-km
transmission[69]. R. Zakaria developed a
new FBMC scheme and transmission strategy
(FFT-FBMC) in order to avoid the interfer-
ence problems of the MIMO scheme in the
case of single-input single-output (SISO) con-
China Communications October 2015
the introduction of new technologies
OFDMA[55]; MC-CDMA (Multi Carrier -Code Divi-
sion Multiple Access)[56,57]; MIMO +SDMA (Massive
MIMO is used in SDMA)[58,59]
PDMA(Polarization Division Multiple Access)[60]
Input
IFFT
Cyclic Prefix Channel
CP
OFDMA
Input Cyclic Prefix Channel
IFFT
CP
Filter Banks
FBMC
Fig.4 Principle of FBMC
figuration and then extended its application to
SM-MIMO configuration with MLD and Al-
amouti coding scheme[70]. Frank Schaich, et
al. compared FBMC with OFDM in time-fre-
quency efficiency and concluded that FBMC
outperformed OFDM by about 10% in case of
very short packets while performing similar
for long sequences[71]. However, although
FBMC enjoys many nice features, it also has
many disadvantages. For instance, since the
carriers are not orthogonal each other, there
will be interferences between the subcarriers.
In fact, in order to meet specific requirements
for the frequency response characteristics,
requirements of the prototype filter length is
much greater than the number of sub-channels,
which causes high complexity and is not con-
ducive to hardware implementation[71,72].
Hence, although there are many literatures to
solve these problems now[73,74], there is still
a long way to achieve commercial demand.
3.2 UFMC
It is known to all that OFDM is a waveform
which has been studied in depth and applied
to 4G and WIFI[75,76]. Since Machine Type
Communications (MTC) and Internet of
Things (IoT) are considered as the potential
8
 application scenarios for 5G mobile commu-
nication system, OFDM will no longer meets
these requirements[77,78]. As discussed
above, though FBMC boasts many advantages
in theory, it is very complex and troublesome
to implement in practical applications. Particu-
larly, FBMC requires the length of filters must
be much longer than the length of symbols,
so the implementation complexity is particu-
larly high[79]. To solve this problem, a novel
waveform Universal Filtered Multi-Carrier
(UFMC) are proposed[80]. UFMC collects the
advantages of OFDM and FBMC, removes
their shortcomings at the same time. UFMC
design principle is different from both OFDM
and FBMC[79,81]. In OFDM, the filtering is
done over the entire frequency band, and the
filtering of FBMC is done on each sub-carrier.
However, UFMC balances filtering function of
the two waveforms. Firstly, the entire frequen-
cy band is divided into multiple sub-bands,
then UFMC filtering is done on every sub-
band comprising multiple subcarriers[82,83].
Fig.5 describes a simplified model of UFMC
system transmitter.
In Fig.5, the entire frequency band is di-
vided into m sub-bands, each sub-band has B
sub-carriers.
UFMC is considered as an important choice
for 5G system multi-carrier scheme. Frank
Schaich, et al. compared UFMC with OFDM
in spectral efficiency and reached a conclusion
Filter
IDFT
Filter
IDFT
QAM
Modulation
S/P P/S
Filter
IDFT
B sub- carriers
Fig.5 Simplified model of UFMC system transmitter
9 China Communications October 2015
that UFMC outperformed OFDM by about
10% in any case[71]. Now there are many
researches on improvement and innovation
of the original version[83], and the UFMC
techniques are successfully implemented in
an uplink CoMP scenario[80]. The purpose
of this UFMC design principle is to restrain
the spectral side-lobes, moreover to reduce
the interference between adjacent carriers.
Furthermore, the UFMC filter length will be
evidently shorter than that of FBMC. Because
the sub-band bandwidth is wider than FBMC
signal bandwidth, so the UFMC filter length
is no longer needed to be as long as that of
FBMC. Therefore, the UFMC implementation
complexity is obviously decreased. UFMC
also has an evident and important advantage
that UFMC sub-carriers are non-orthogonal
and dont need to be synchronized, so that
it could meet the requirements of MTC and
IoT[84,85]. Although UFMC has many advan-
tages, there exists some certain disadvantages
at the same time, such as UFMC is more sen-
sitive to the time difference so that it might not
be suitable for applications that require loose
time synchronization. So there is still much
further work to do about the improvement and
enhancement of UFMC.
3.3 GFDM
Under 5G demands[9], traditional OFDM sys-
tem based on FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)
Baseband
+ A/D
to RF
has encountered several challenges. E.g., it
is sensitive to Doppler shift which is caused
by high-speed moving mobile stations[86], it
introduces cyclic prefix to inhibit the effects
of multipath fading channel propagation[87],
which reduces system spectrum efficiency, and
it has a considerably high PAPR (Peak-to-Av-
erage Power Ratio) caused by a linear super-
position of a plurality of subcarriers modulated
signal[88]. To cope with the challenges above,
Vodafone Chair Mobile Communications
Systems proposed Generalized Frequency
Division Multiplexing (GFDM) system which
replaces the linear filtering with a circular one
for pulse shaping[89].
GFDM boasts some attractive features[90]
such as providing an effective alternative for
spectrum white spaces aggregation in the TV
UHF (ultra-high frequency) bands which are
located in close proximity to allocated spec-
trum, a lower PARP compared to OFDM, a ul-
tra-low out-of-band radiation due to adjustable
Tx-filtering and efficient FFT-based equal-
ization, etc. In particular low PARP allows to
reduce the hardware cost and power consump-
tion, which is an important point of sale for
future wireless communication systems. M.
Danneberg, et al. described in detail the exper-
iment with the sensor and proved that GFDM
is spectrally efficient compared to OFDM[91].
An innovative PHY design schemes for a flex-
ible digital radio with equalization schemes
implemented with better BER performance
was presented in the paper[92]. N. Michailow,
et al. showed that pulse shaped subcarriers
could be achieved in GFDM at reasonable
computational cost which is approximately
in the same order of magnitude as traditional
OFDM[93]. Combined with MIMO, N. Mi-
chailow addressed MIMO-GFDM as a mean
to obtain diversity in the system and presented
a proof-of-concept implementation[94]. Ad-
ditionally, compared to conventional OFDM,
GFDM is more suitable for cognitive radio
PHY because of better spectral shaping and
sensing characteristics[95].
Though GFDM enjoys many advantages,
when comes to interferences, it might not im-
China Communications October 2015
prove performance of the system efficiently
only by a simple interference cancellation
technique (e.g. serial inter-carrier interference
cancellation scheme), there are still lots of
further researches needed. Besides, reducing
complexity of the receiver is significant as
well in improving performance of the system,
it needs further achievements on coding re-
search.
3.4 Summary
In this section, three new waveforms FBMC,
UFMC and GFDM are introduced and ana-
lyzed. As is shown in Table III below, they all
have their strengths and weaknesses respec-
tively. For instance, they have all reduced side-
lobes through the filtering functionality com-
pared with OFDM, there is no need to insert
the cycle prefix or the guard interval, which
greatly improves frequency efficiency for
them. Besides, their carriers no longer have to
be orthogonal now, so it can flexibly avoid the
interference between adjacent subcarriers to
a certain extent and facilitate the use of some
scattered spectrum resources. However, they
also have some drawbacks respectively. For
FBMC, because of narrow bandwidth of the
subcarriers, the requirements of the prototype
filter length is much greater than that of the
symbols, consequently it is more difficult to
achieve. Compared with FBMC, the length of
the UFMC transmit filter is relatively shorter,
but UFMC is more sensitive to the time differ-
ence so that UFMC might not be suitable for
applications that require loose time synchro-
nization. For GFDM, although it effectively
achieves the utilization of some scattered
spectrum resources and dynamic spectrum
management, the subcarrier filtering can result
in non-orthogonal subcarriers, inter-symbol
interference (ISI) and inter-carrier interference
(ICI).
Waveform design is from orthogonal wave-
forms to non-orthogonal waveforms which
will be more suitable for 5G demands. With
the in depth study, these new waveform mod-
ulation technologies will be able to replace
the existing OFDM well if they could reduce
10
Table III The summary and comparison of three new waveforms
Features
Key technologies Advantages
Waveforms
(1) the flexible control of the degree of overlap between each
sub- carrier
FBMC multi-carrier filtering (2) time-frequency efficiency improvement by about 10% in
case of very short packets
(3) low synchronization requirement
(1) the short filter length, Low complexity
(2) time-frequency efficiency improvement by about 10% in (1) higher synchronization re-
UFMC block-wise filtering
any case
(3) small interference between sub-carriers
(1) lower PARP
Tx-filtering FFT-based
GFDM (2) use of scattered spectrum resources
equalization
(3) ultra-low out-of-band radiation
inter-carrier interference and the complexity
of receivers.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
According to the 3GPP timeline, 5G will begin
the work of Evaluation Criteria in 2016[96],
whose goal will be to identify key technolo-
gy indicators to meet 1000 times the future
traffic growth of mobile communications, 100
times the number of connections, 5-15 times
the spectral efficiency, etc., and bring a new
user experience. Nowadays the non-orthog-
onal thought has been greatly applied in the
latest trends of 5G multiple access technology
and waveform modulation techniques. In this
paper, promising non-orthogonal multiple ac-
cess schemes and non-orthogonal waveform
modulation techniques for 5G mobile com-
munications are reviewed and compared, and
the future development of these technologies
are analyzed as well. With the in depth study,
5G key technologies of multiple access and
waveform will be gradually clear, then will be
entered a substantive stage of standardization
and formulation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the reviewers
for their detailed reviews and constructive
comments, which have helped improve the
11
Disadvantages
(1) large interference between
sub-carriers
(2) the long filter length, high
complexity
quirement than CP-OFDM
(1) receiver is rather complex
quality of this paper. This work was support-
ed in part by National Natural Science Funds
for Creative Research Groups of China under
Grant No. 61421061; Huawei Innovation
Research Program; Open Research Fund in
Xian Jiaotong University under Grant No. sk-
lms2015015.
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Biographies
Tao Yunzheng, * the corresponding author, Ph.D.
degree candidate with the State Key Laboratory of
15
Network and Switching Technology, Beijing University
of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT). His current
research interests include the next generation wire-
less networks, multiple access technology, non-or-
thogonal transmission of wireless communications
and cyber physical system. Email: yunzhengtao@
bupt.edu.cn
Liu Long, received his B.S. degrees from Xian Uni-
versity of Posts and Telecommunications (XUPT) in
2014. Since 2014, he has been pursuing Masters
degree with the State Key Laboratory of Network and
Switching Technology at BUPT. His research interests
include cognitive radio networks, the next generation
wireless networks, full-duplex networks and multiple
access technology. Email: liulong0612@gmail.com
Liu Shang, received his B.S. degrees from Beijing
University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT)
in 2011. Since 2011, he has been pursuing Ph.D. de-
gree with the State Key Laboratory of Network and
Switching Technology at BUPT. His research interests
include cognitive radio, the next generation wireless
networks, the optimization and performance analysis
of wireless network and spectrum monitoring net-
work deployment. Email: liushang8266@gmail.com
Zhang Zhi, received the Ph.D. degrees in Beijing
University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2004.
He now is an expert of the national Ministry of In-
dustry and Information Technology TD-LTE working
group. He hosted and participated in a number of
863 projects, the Natural Science Foundation of
country/Beijing, and a number of international and
domestic horizontal cooperation projects. His major
research interests include physical layer technology,
wireless (RF) measurement technique, radio resource
management and QoS, mobility management, etc.
Email: zhangzhi@bupt.edu.cn
China Communications October 2015