Filter Bank Modulation and Waveforms

Filter bank modulation schemes for transmission over wide band channels are becoming more and more relevant for future wireless and wireline communication systems.
The most popular technique is OFDM. Current research is focusing on flexible and efficient filter bank architectures that provide better sub-channel spectral containment, enable improved spectrum management characteristics, and offer higher spectral efficiency in severe propagation conditions (high frequency selectivity, time selectivity, non ideal time/frequency synchronization, narrow band interference, phase noise, amplifier non-linearity, etc.).

However, performance gains don’t come for free but they may introduce increased implementation complexity. In other words, OFDM has its limitations but it is an elegant and simple solution. This is why it is important to devise performance and complexity wise efficient solutions.

We have been among the first to propose the use of cyclic filter banks, and we have conceived a novel scheme called Cyclic Block FMT.

Andrea Tonello

“In our lab we are developing novel breakthrough filter bank technologies that capture the best characteristics of the known filter bank solutions but in a radical new architectural philosophy. They exhibit high performance in nasty channels, yet requiring an efficient low complexity implementation,” Tonello says.

Targeted applications are wireless (e.g. 5G), wireline, and power line communications. Examples of the proposed solutions are the DFT filter bank implementation of FMT, concatenated OFDM-FMT, Wavelet OFDM, Hybrid Filter Bank Modulation, and Cyclic Filter Bank Modulation. A number of milestone contributions have been made:

  • Analysis of OFDMA in wireless uplink channels
  • Multiuser filter bank systems
  • Optimal and suboptimal detection/decoding in multiuser filter bank schemes
  • Analysis and design of FMT in double selective fading channels
  • Efficient implementation architectures of FMT
  • Multiantenna FMT and OFDM
  • Concatenated OFDM and FMT scheme
  • Synchronization, channel estimation, and equalization in FMT systems
  • Orthogonal FMT design
  • Wavelet OFDM
  • Application of FMT in power line communications
  • Precoded polynomial SVD filter banks
  • Adaptive OFDM and FMT
  • Hybrid OFDM and filter bank modulation
  • Cyclic block FMT

Selected Publications

M. Girotto and A. M. Tonello. Orthogonal Design of Cyclic Block Filtered Multitone Modulation. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 2017.

M. Girotto and A. M. Tonello. Adaptive Zero Padded CB-FMT for LTE Uplink Transmission in the High Mobility Scenario. European Signal Processing Conference, 2017.

A. M. Tonello and M. Girotto. Cyclic Block Filtered Multitone Modulation. EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, 2014.

N. Moret, A. M. Tonello, and S. Weiss. MIMO Precoding for Filter bank Modulation Systems Based on Polynomial Singular Value Decomposition. In Proc. IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, 2011 (best paper award).

N. Moret and A. M. Tonello. Design of Orthogonal Filtered Multitone Modulation Systems and Comparison among Efficient Realizations. EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, Special issue: Filter Banks for Next Generation Wireless Multicarrier Systems, 2010.

A. M. Tonello and F. Pecile. Efficient Architectures for Multiuser FMT Systems and Application to Power Line Communications. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 2009.

A. M. Tonello. Method and Apparatus for Filtered Multitone Modulation Using Circular Convolution. PCT WO2009135886A1, 2008.

A. M. Tonello. A Concatenated Multitone Multiple Antenna Air-interface for the Asynchronous Multiple Access Channel. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas of Communications, special issue on 4G systems, 2006.

A. M. Tonello. Performance Limits for Filtered Multitone Modulation in Fading Channels. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2005.

A. M. Tonello. “Asynchronous Multicarrier Multiple Access: Optimal and Sub-optimal Detection and Decoding. Bell Labs Technical Journal, special issue: Wireless Radio Access Networks, 2003.