SC-FDMA as a Delay-Doppler Domain Modulation Technique

Abstract: This paper compares orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation and single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA). It shows that these are equivalent except for a set of linear phase shifts, applied to the transmit/receive data symbols, which can be absorbed into the channel. Through mathematical and numerical analysis, it is confirmed that SC-FDMA is in fact a delay-Doppler domain multiplexing technique that can achieve the same performance gains as those of OTFS in time-varying wireless environments. This is a promising result as SC-FDMA is already a part of the current wireless standards. The derivations in this paper also shed light on the time-frequency resources used by the delay-Doppler domain data symbols with the fine granularity of delay and Doppler spacings. While comparing the detection performance of the two waveforms, a timing offset (TO) estimation technique with orders of magnitude higher accuracy than the existing solutions in the literature is proposed. From multiple access viewpoint, the underlying tile structures in the time-frequency domain for OTFS and SC-FDMA are discussed. Finally, multiuser input-output relationships for both waveforms in the uplink are derived.