Projecte matriculat
Títol: Performance comparison of OTFS vs OFDM wireless signals in high-mobility environments
Director/a: ALONSO ZÁRATE, LUIS
Departament: TSC
Títol: Performance comparison of OTFS vs OFDM wireless signals in high-mobility environments
Data inici oferta: 25-06-2025 Data finalització oferta: 25-02-2026
Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
GR ENG SIS TELECOMUN- GR ENG SIST AEROESP
- GR ENG TELEMÀTICA
| Tipus: Individual | |
| Lloc de realització: EETAC | |
| Paraules clau: | |
| Wireless communications, OFDM, OTFS, Doppler, Mobility, Performance | |
| Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats: | |
| This bachelor's thesis project focuses on the simulation and comparative performance analysis of Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation schemes in high-mobility communication environments. As wireless communication systems progress toward 6G, ensuring reliable performance under rapidly varying channel conditions has become a crucial challenge. OFDM, while dominant in 4G and 5G networks, suffers from performance degradation in scenarios involving high Doppler spread-such as vehicular, UAV, and satellite communication-due to the loss of subcarrier orthogonality. In contrast, OTFS operates in the delay-Doppler domain and has shown strong potential for robustness in time-varying channels. This project will provide students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with both modulation schemes and explore their strengths and weaknesses through simulation-based analysis.
The main objective of this project is to implement the baseband signal processing chains of both OFDM and OTFS in MATLAB (or optionally Python). The student will simulate and compare their Bit Error Rate (BER) and Spectral Efficiency under different levels of Doppler spread. To make the simulations realistic, the project will incorporate mobility models that reflect real-world use cases. For instance, the student may simulate scenarios such as a car moving through an urban area at 80 km/h, a UAV flying at 150 km/h, or a satellite communication link involving extremely high Doppler shifts. These channel conditions can be modeled using standard Rayleigh or Rician fading models with Doppler components. Additionally, vehicular mobility traces from platforms such as SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility) or synthetic mobility data can be used to enrich the simulation with more practical dynamics. The project will also involve plotting performance metrics-such as BER versus Doppler frequency-to evaluate and visualize the impact of mobility on each waveform. The student will write a detailed report discussing the observed trade-offs in performance, computational complexity, and robustness for each waveform. Emphasis will be placed on interpreting the results in a real-world context, highlighting which waveform performs better under which type of mobility scenario and why. This hands-on project is highly relevant for students interested in wireless communication, signal processing, and emerging 6G technologies. By the end of the thesis, the student will have built a foundational understanding of modern modulation techniques and their applicability in next-generation high-mobility networks. To ensure the accuracy and relevance of the simulation results, students will study and integrate realistic channel models that reflect the impairments experienced in dynamic wireless environments. These include modeling Doppler spread, multipath fading, and time-selective channels, which are particularly detrimental to OFDM's performance. For OTFS, the student will explore how delay-Doppler domain transforms such as the Inverse Symplectic Finite Fourier Transform (ISFFT) and Symplectic Finite Fourier Transform (SFFT) help maintain symbol integrity by spreading information across the entire time-frequency grid. As part of the analysis, students will compare how the two waveforms perform in terms of diversity gain, resilience to time variation, and latency impact. The student will be encouraged to document not just quantitative results (like BER curves), but also qualitative observations-such as implementation complexity, memory usage, and sensitivity to estimation errors. Ultimately, the project will serve as a comprehensive simulation-based feasibility study, helping inform future waveform selection decisions in the context of high-mobility 6G and ISAC systems. |
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| Orientació a l'estudiant: | |
| Requereix activitats hardware: No | |
| Requereix activitats software: Sí Sistema operatiu: Disc (Gb): | |
| Horari d'atenció a estudiants per a l'assignació de projecte: |
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