Cyclic Prefix Adaptation with Constant Overall Symbol Time for DFT-spread-OFDM and OFDM

Abstract: For DFT-spread-OFDM or OFDM, if the delay spread varies in a wide range and the symbol duration is relatively short, adapting the cyclic prefix (CP) duration rather than using a fixed one may significantly improve the spectral efficiency while preventing inter-symbol interference (ISI). In practice, it may be beneficial to have a constant overall DFT-spread-OFDM/OFDM symbol time, which is the sum of the duration of a CP and the duration of a data portion. We propose to adapt the CP duration to the delay spread without changing the overall symbol time for DFT-spread-OFDM or OFDM, and address implementation challenges. In particular, we propose changing the clocking rate of ADC and DAC or using a Farrow filter to reduce the computational complexity of arbitrary-size DFT/IDFT resulting from the adaptation.