Theoretical performance of bandlimited MC-CDMA systems over nonlinear channels

In multicarrier (MC) broadband wireless networks, nonlinear power amplification is one of the main performance limiting factor, and therefore its effects have to be properly quantified during the design phase of the radio links. This letter outlines an analytical framework for the forward-link of a bandlimited MC code division multiple access that intends to fulfill this need while improving the scarce efficiency of conventional simulation-based-only design procedures. Through the extended Bussgang theorem, the approach presented herein yields a theoretical description of several time- and frequency-domain system features, such as transmitted signal power spectrum, constellation warping, nonlinear distortion noise and BER metric. Extensive simulation results verify the accuracy of the proposed analysis under typical multiple-access operating conditions.