OTFS modulation outperforms OFDM in high mobility wireless communication
Comparative Performance Analysis of OTFS and OFDM Modulations for Mobile Wireless Communications
Networking and Internet Architecture
Summary
Wireless signals can get scrambled when devices move fast or when many signal paths interfere. The authors compare two ways to send these signals: OTFS and OFDM. They find OTFS handles fast movement and multiple signal paths better than OFDM. They also show that a certain kind of signal cleanup, called non-linear equalization, works best for OTFS at moderate signal strengths.
What this means in practice
- •For mobile network engineers: Design and optimize communication protocols for devices moving at high speeds by selecting OTFS over OFDM to improve data reliability.
- •For wireless system designers: Develop equalization techniques favoring non-linear methods in OTFS systems to enhance performance in multipath environments at typical signal strengths.
Authors
J. Marcos Leal B. Filho, Danilo de S. Pena, Marília C. Muniz, Álvaro A. M. de Medeiros, Vicente A. de Sousa
Abstract
This paper provides a quantitative performance comparison between Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) and Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation schemes, focusing on mobile wireless communication scenarios. We evaluate and compare both schemes based on critical communication scenarios and configurations such as mobility levels, modulation orders, multipath environments, and equalizers. The study systematically identifies conditions where OTFS and OFDM each exhibit optimal performance. Results from simulations demonstrate that OTFS outperforms OFDM consistently for high mobility scenarios and multipath environments. Depending on the modulation order, the performance gap between OTFS and OFDM might be very close or many orders of magnitude. Moreover, at low and mid values of SNR, the non-linear equalizer performs better than traditional linear equalizers for OTFS.