What is P-OFDM?
P-OFDM (Pulse-Shaped OFDM) is a multicarrier modulation technique that applies pulse shaping to conventional OFDM waveforms to improve out-of-band emission characteristics while maintaining compatibility with standard OFDM receiver processing. P-OFDM offers a practical middle ground between standard CP-OFDM (with relatively high OOB emissions) and fully filtered approaches like FBMC (with high implementation complexity). It was studied as a candidate waveform during 5G NR standardisation.
How Does P-OFDM Work?
P-OFDM modifies the conventional CP-OFDM transmitter by applying a windowing or pulse-shaping function to each OFDM symbol. The pulse shape extends slightly beyond the CP duration, creating overlap regions between consecutive symbols. These overlapping tails are added together (overlap-and-add), and the resulting smooth transitions between symbols dramatically reduce spectral sidelobes. The receiver can still use standard FFT-based OFDM demodulation, though performance may be optimised with matched-filter processing. P-OFDM achieves 10–20 dB better OOB suppression than standard CP-OFDM with minimal additional complexity.
Use Cases
Spectral coexistence in fragmented or shared spectrum, asynchronous multi-user OFDMA, mixed-numerology operation, 6G waveform research, and cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum access systems.
3GPP / Standards Reference
3GPP TR 38.802 (NR waveform study — candidate waveforms), 3GPP TS 38.211 (NR waveform — CP-OFDM windowing aspects)
Related Terms
OFDM | CP-OFDM | W-OFDM | FBMC | UF-OFDM
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This glossary entry is part of the 5GWorldPro Complete 5G Glossary. To go deeper into 5G architecture and technology, explore our 5G Training courses.
