Analysis of predistortion, equalization, and ISI cancellation techniques in digital radio systems with nonlinear transmit amplifiers

An analysis made of the performance of predistortion, equalization, and intersymbol interference (ISI) cancellation techniques in compensating for the transmit amplifier nonlinearity in digital microwave radio systems. The study is carried out using the 64 QAM and 256 QAM signal formats and two values of the roll-off factor in the Nyquist pulse shaping. The simulated compensation techniques include three types of predistortion, two ISI cancellers, and several nonlinear equalizers with or without decision feedback. A basic result is that decision-feedback equalizers do not offer any significant advantage over nonrecursive equalizers. It is also shown that ISI cancelers with a memoryless equalizer as first-stage decision device do not perform any better than nonlinear equalizers of similar complexity. Another contribution an improved fifth-order analog signal predistortion technique is analyzed. The gain that can be achieved using a modified 256 QAM signal constellation that is more robust to nonlinear distortion is quantified