Conceptual Proposal: Frequency Offset Modulation for High-Efficiency Communications

TL;DR

Frequency Offset Modulation (FOM) is introduced as an innovative communication technique that enhances energy and spectral efficiency by using slight frequency offsets among transmitters to implicitly encode data without additional power or interference.

Contribution

This paper proposes FOM as a novel modulation scheme that simplifies channel requirements and combines with spatial modulation for improved efficiency in high-capacity communications.

Findings

FOM achieves high energy and spectral efficiency.

FOM requires no inter-antenna synchronization.

Hybrid FOM and spatial modulation further enhance performance.

Abstract

Frequency offset modulation (FOM) is proposed as a new concept to provide both high energy efficiency and high spectral efficiency for communications. In the FOM system, an array of transmitters (TXs) is deployed and only one TX is activated for data transmission at any signaling time instance. The TX index distinguished by a very slight frequency offset among the entire occupied bandwidth is exploited to implicitly convey a bit unit without any power or signal radiation, saving the power and spectral resources. Moreover, the FOM is characterized by removing the stringent requirements on distinguishable spatial channels and perfect priori channel knowledge, while retaining the advantages of no inter-channel interference and no need of inter-antenna synchronization. In addition, a hybrid solution integrating the FOM and the spatial modulation is discussed to further improve the energy efficiency and spectral efficiency. Consequently, the FOM will be an enabling and green solution to support ever-increasing high-capacity data traffic in a variety of interdisciplinary fields.