On the system performance of DFT-S-OFDM and CP-OFDM for 5G Uplink in mmWave band

Both conventional Cyclic Prefix Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (CP-OFDM) and Discrete Fourier Transform Spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM) have been adopted for their use in the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) in the 5G New Radio (NR) standard. While CP-OFDM can better exploit the frequency characteristics of the channel, DFTS-OFDM has the advantage of a lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). Due to the interactions between PAPR and power amplifier (PA) non-linearity, users adopting DFT-S-OFDM waveform may benefit from a potentially higher PA efficiency and extend their coverage by increasing their transmit power. In this paper we study the uplink performance of both waveforms and their interaction with non-linear PA and uplink power control in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band to determine their optimal operational range.