Full-Duplex Quasi-Gapless Carrier Aggregation Using FBMC in Centralized Radio-Over-Fiber Heterogeneous Networks

Filter-bank multicarrier (FBMC) is proposed to demonstrate a full-duplex asynchronous quasi-gapless (only one subcarrier spacing) carrier aggregation for millimeter-wave (MMW) radio-over-fiber radio access technology (RAT) in next-generation 5G heterogeneous mobile-data-network (Het-Net). Fourteen broadband FBMC signals are aggregated with only one subcarrier guard band in the 60-GHz MMW downlink. In the uplink quasi-gapless asynchronous inter-RAT carrier aggregation between 60-GHz MMW and 4G long-term evolution (LTE) signals are also demonstrated. System performances assessment of FBMC and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) under different operation condition are studied. Our results also show that the FBMC-based new RAT is also backward compatible with existing LTE systems in the Het-Net. Compared with OFDM-based signals with large guard bands, FBMC achieves higher spectral efficiency with better error vector magnitude performance at less received power and smaller guard bands.