SC-FDMA in LTE system

Single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) is common choice for uplink of long term evolution (LTE) standard for broadband wireless communication. SC-FDMA is preferred for LTE uplink mainly due to its advantage of having low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) during signal transmission.

1. What is SC-FDMA in telecom?
2. What is OFDM and SC-FDMA in LTE?
3. How does SC-FDMA work?
4. What is the advantage of SC-FDMA over OFDM?

What is SC-FDMA in telecom?

A multiplexing technique similar to OFDMA but where the subcarriers assigned to each user must be contiguous, which reduces the processing power and battery requirements for mobile devices. See also OFDMA.

What is OFDM and SC-FDMA in LTE?

One of the key elements of LTE is the use of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) as the signal bearer, as well as OFDM's associated access schemes, OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) and SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access).

How does SC-FDMA work?

In SC-FDMA, multiple subcarriers carry each data symbol due to mapping of the symbols' frequency domain samples to subcarriers. As each data symbol is spread over multiple subcarriers, SC-FDMA offers spreading gain or frequency diversity gain in a frequency selective channel.

What is the advantage of SC-FDMA over OFDM?

Owing to its inherent single carrier structure, a prominent advantage of SC-FDMA over OFDM and OFDMA is that its transmit signal has a lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), resulting in relaxed design parameters in the transmit path of a subscriber unit.