The waveform is a core component of any communication technology. There are two main categories of waveforms:
1) Single-Carrier waveforms like:
- 2G.
- 3G.
- ZigBee.
- Bluetooth
Single-carrier waveforms have a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), which makes them power efficient—suitable for coverage limited scenarios and extending battery life of user equipment.
2) Multi-carrier waveforms.
- 4G
- ADSL
- WLAN
- WiMAX.
Multi-carrier waveforms provide high spectral efficiency, flexible resource allocation in the frequency domain, and possibly easy integration with multi-antenna technology.
