Unified Low Complexity Radix-2 Architectures for Time and Frequency-Domain GFDM Modem

Most of the conventional multicarrier waveforms explicitly or implicitly involve a generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM)-based modem as a core part of the baseband processing. Some are based on GFDM with a single prototype filter, e.g. orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and others employ multiple filters such as filter bank multicarrier (FBMC). Moreover, the GFDM degrees of freedom combined with multiple prototype filters design allow the development and optimization of new waveforms. Nevertheless, GFDM has been widely considered as a complex modulation because of the requirements of odd number of subcarriers or subsymbols. Accordingly, the current state of the art implementations consume high resources. One solution to reduce the complexity is utilizing radix-2 parameters. Due to the advancement in GFDM filter design, the constraint of using odd parameters has been overcome and radix-2 realization is now possible. In this paper, we propose a unified low complexity architecture that can be reconfigured to provide both time-domain and frequency-domain modulation/demodulation. The design consists of several radix-2 fast Fourier transform (FFT) and memory blocks, in addition to one complex multiplier. Moreover, we provide a unified architecture for the state of the art implementations, which is designed based on direct computation of circular convolution using parallel multiplier chains. As we demonstrate in this work, the FFT-based architecture is computationally more efficient, provides more flexibility, significantly reduces the resource consumption, and achieves similar latency for larger block size.