Wireless OFDM-OQAM with a Small Number of Subcarriers

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing based on offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OFDM-OQAM) is a multicarrier signaling technique which trades off robustness for spectral efficiency when compared to conventional OFDM with a cyclic prefix. In this paper, a novel matrix model for passband OFDM-OQAM signaling with a small number of subcarriers over a multipath frequency selective fading channel is presented. Specifically, in OFDM-OQAM a frequency selective channel is divided into many smaller but still frequency selective overlapping channels, so approximating the frequency response of a subchannel by the channel frequency response sampled at the subcarrier frequency may be inadequate. Channel effects may be better characterized if the frequency response of each subchannel is represented as a Taylor expansion at the subcarrier frequency. Simulation results show how the matrix model implemented by means of this approximation is a suitable model for OFDM-OQAM with a small number of subcarriers.