Spectral Efficiency Improvement of Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing with a Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output System for Next Generation Wireless Communication Networks

Irfan Khan; Vikas Tiwari

doi:10.48084/etasr.16649

Authors

Irfan Khan Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Oriental University Indore, India
Vikas Tiwari Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Oriental University Indore, India

Volume: 16 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 36290-36298 | June 2026 | https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.16649

Received: 2 December 2025 | Revised: 3 January 2026, 20 January 2026, and 28 January 2026 | Accepted: 29 January 2026 | Online: 6 June 2026

Corresponding author: Irfan Khan

Abstract

To meet the high throughput and low latency demands of future generations (5G and beyond), many researchers propose improving system performance. As spectral scarcity becomes a defining constraint for future generation wireless networks, the adoption of spectrally efficient waveforms is crucial. In view of this, the current paper discusses a scheme that combines massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing (GFDM) with a higher-order modulation system. While higher-order modulation in traditional MIMO systems often degrades the error rate, the proposed MIMO GFDM scheme utilizes superior pulse shaping, channel coding, and the massive MIMO system to maintain reliability. The findings confirm that the proposed scheme provides enhanced array gain and spectral efficiency, making it highly effective for next-generation high-capacity networks. Ultimately, a new MIMO GFDM scheme is proposed to integrate these benefits, demonstrating superior performance by simultaneously improving both Symbol Error Rate (SER) and capacity over next generation communication systems. This work evaluates the performance of GFDM against Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) within a massive MIMO downlink framework. Through simulations with eight transmitting antennas and sixteen receiving antennas, utilizing an 8x16 antenna configuration, the spectral efficiency of both waveforms under different modulation orders and channel conditions is evaluated. Simulation results demonstrate that while both systems benefit from the array gain provided by receive diversity, the proposed MIMO GFDM system yields superior throughput in bandwidth-limited regimes. Specifically, GFDM achieves a saturation spectral efficiency of 4.75 bits/s/Hz using QAM 1024, outperforming the OFDM baseline of 4.2 bits/s/Hz by approximately 13%. This performance enhancement is attributed to the block-based filtering structure of GFDM, which significantly reduces the Cyclic Prefix (CP) overhead relative to OFDM. Furthermore, the analysis identifies precise SNR thresholds for link adaptation, confirming that MIMO GFDM is a robust and highly efficient candidate for future high throughput communication systems.

Keywords:

massive MIMO, GFDM, OFDM, BER, spectral efficiency

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