Experimental emulation for OTFS waveform RF-impairments

TL;DR

This paper experimentally investigates the effects of RF impairments on OTFS waveform performance in high-mobility environments, comparing it to OFDM, using SDR-based tests in real indoor wireless settings.

Contribution

It provides an experimental framework for analyzing RF impairments on OTFS, including practical pulse shaping and real-world validation, which was previously lacking.

Findings

RF impairments significantly affect OTFS performance

Experimental results align with theoretical predictions

OTFS shows robustness in high-mobility scenarios

Abstract

Orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) waveform exceeds the challenges that face orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in the high-mobility environment with high time-frequency dispersive channels. Since practical pulse shaping design and RF-impairments effects have a direct impact on waveform behavior, this paper investigates experimental implementation for practical pulse shaping design and RF-impairments that affect OTFS waveform performance and compares them to OFDM waveform as a benchmark. Firstly, the doubly-dispersive channel effect is analyzed, then an experimental framework is established for investigating the RF-impairments include non-linearity, Carrier frequency offset, I/Q-imbalances, DC-offset, and phase noise are considered. The experiments were conducted in a real indoor wireless environment using software-defined radio (SDR)based on the Keysight EXG X-Serie devices. The experimental results validate the accuracy of the theoretical results.