A half subcarrier guard band spectrum assignment scheme for multi-user FBMC systems

Traditionally, in multi-user multi-carrier systems, the neighboring subband will be gapped by one subcarrier, which is set as guard band to reduce multiple access interference (MAI) between neighboring subbands.The empty subcarrier for guard band will degrade the spectral efficiency of the whole system.In order to enhance the spectral efficiency of multi-user filter bank multiple carrier (FBMC) systems, a new subband allocation method is introduced, in which the neighboring subband is gapped by half subcarrier instead of one subcarrier.Meanwhile, in order to implement the proposed resource allocation scheme, an optimized FBMC prototype filter is designed to decrease the inter-subband interference to the neighboring subband.The detailed simulations about the comparison between the proposed spectrum assignment and traditional FBMC are given, as well as the performance in the different interference scenarios.The simulation results show that the combination of the proposed spectrum assignment scheme and the optimized filter has better performance compared to the traditional scheme.The proposed scheme can be used in the system which serves massive users to get higher spectrum efficiency.