Low-complexity spectral shaping method for OFDM signals with dynamically adaptive emission mask

Abstract: Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals with rectangular pulses exhibit low spectral confinement. Shaping their power spectral density (PSD) is imperative in the increasingly overcrowded spectrum to benefit from the cognitive radio (CR) paradigm. However, since the available spectrum is non-contiguous and its occupancy changes with time, the spectral shaping solution has to be dynamically adapted. This work proposes a framework that allows using a reduced set of preoptimized pulses to shape the spectrum of OFDM signals, irrespective of its spectral width and location, by means of simple transformations. The employed pulses combine active interference cancellation (AIC) and adaptive symbol transition (AST) terms in a transparent way to the receiver. They can be easily adapted online by the communication device to changes in the location or width of the transmission band, which contrasts with existing methods of the same type that require solving NP-hard optimization problems.