On the Coexistence of OTFS Modulation with OFDM-based Communication Systems

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how OTFS modulation can coexist with OFDM-based 4G/5G systems, considering practical factors like cyclic prefixes and edge carrier unloading, and proposes an interference cancellation-based channel estimation method.

Contribution

It derives the OTFS input-output relation considering real-world CP and ECU effects, revealing channel spreading and reduced sparsity, and introduces a novel interference cancellation-based channel estimation technique.

Findings

Inclusion of multiple CPs and ECU causes channel spreading in Doppler and delay dimensions.

Effective DD domain channel coefficients are affected by unequal CP lengths.

Proposed CE technique improves channel estimation accuracy in coexisting systems.

Abstract

We investigate the coexistence of orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) modulation with current fourth- and fifth-generation (4G/5G) communication systems that primarily use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms. We first derive the input-output-relation of OTFS in the considered coexisting system. In this derivation, we consider (i) the inclusion of multiple cyclic prefixes (CPs) with unequal lengths to the OTFS signal and (ii) edge carrier unloading (ECU), to account for the impacts of CP length, frame structure, and subcarrier arrangement described in 3GPP standards for 4G/5G systems. Our analysis reveals that the inclusion of multiple CPs to the OTFS signal and ECU lead to the channel response exhibiting spreading effects/leakage along the Doppler and delay dimensions, respectively. Consequently, the effective sampled delay-Doppler (DD) domain channel model for OTFS in coexisting systems may exhibit reduced sparsity. We also show that the effective DD domain channel coefficients for OTFS in coexisting systems are influenced by the unequal lengths of CPs. Subsequently, we propose an interference cancellation-based channel estimation (CE) technique for OTFS in coexisting systems. Through numerical results, we validate our analysis, highlight the importance of not ignoring the unequal lengths of CPs during signal detection, and show the significance of the proposed CE technique.