Influence of ADC Nonlinearity on the Performance of an OFDM Receiver

Manabu SAWADA
Hiraku OKADA
Takaya YAMAZATO
Masaaki KATAYAMA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E89-B    No.12    pp.3250-3256
Publication Date: 2006/12/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1093/ietcom/e89-b.12.3250
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Software Defined Radio Technology and Its Applications)
Category: 
Keyword: 
OFDM,  ADC,  nonlinearity,  quantization error,  clipping,  

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Summary: 
This paper discusses the influence of the nonlinearity of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) on the performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receivers. We evaluate signal constellations and bit error rate performances while considering quantization errors and clippings. The optimum range for an ADC input amplitude is found as a result of the trade-off between quantization error and the effects of clipping. In addition, it is shown that the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the signal is not a good measure of the bit error rate (BER) performance, since the largest peaks occur only with very low probabilities. The relationship between the location of a subcarrier and its performance is studied. As a result, it is shown that the influence of the quantization error is identical for all subcarriers, while the effects of clipping depend on the subcarrier frequency. When clipping occurs, the BER performance of a subcarrier near the center frequency is worse than that near the edges.