Comparative Performance Analysis of OTFS and OFDM Modulations for Mobile Wireless Communications

José Marcos Leal Barbosa Filho, Danilo Pena, Marília C Muniz, Alvaro A. Machado de Medeiros, Vicente Sousa

DOI: 10.14209/sbrt.2025.1571156218

Evento: XLIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Telecomunicações e Processamento de Sinais (SBrT2025)

Keywords: OTFS OFDM delay-Doppler domain

Abstract

This paper provides a quantitative performance comparison between Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) and Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation schemes, focusing on mobile wireless communication scenarios. We evaluate and compare both schemes based on critical communication scenarios and configurations such as mobility levels, modulation orders, multipath environments, and equalizers. The study systematically identifies conditions where OTFS and OFDM each exhibit optimal performance. Results from simulations demonstrate that OTFS outperforms OFDM consistently for high mobility scenarios and multipath environments. Depending on the modulation order, the performance gap between OTFS and OFDM might be very close or many orders of magnitude. Moreover, at low and mid values of SNR, the non-linear equalizer performs better than traditional linear equalizers for OTFS.

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