Channel equalisation and data detection for SEFDM over frequency selective fading channels

Spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing (SEFDM) has been recognised as a promising multi-carrier technology since it can offer a higher spectral efficiency than orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In this study, the authors provide a framework for SEFDM transceiver design and investigate the techniques of channel equalisation and data detection of SEFDM over frequency selective fading scenarios. Specifically, they first demonstrate through mathematical analysis that SEFDM with the proposed frequency-domain equalisation scheme can benefit from the frequency diversity, and thus, performs more robust to the frequency selective fading environment than OFDM. To effectively mitigate inter-carrier interference raised by the non-orthogonality between sub-carriers of SEFDM, they then propose a low-computational data detection scheme based on the Viterbi principle and maximum a posteriori criterion. The proposed detector can provide an indistinguishable performance from the maximum likelihood detection using sphere decoding while entailing a much lower computation. Numerical results validate the superiority of SEFDM to OFDM over frequency selective fading channels.