PAPR Analytical Characterization and Reduced-PAPR Code Allocation Strategy for MC-CDMA Transmissions

In this paper, an approximate analytical expression for the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of a Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) signal is derived. Then, it is demonstrated that the PAPR of a MC-CDMA system employing Walsh-Hadamard (WH) codes can be suitably reduced by resorting to a judicious strategy for the allocation of the spreading signature codes. Eventually, a low-complexity implementation of the proposed strategy is presented and the relevant benefits, in terms of peak signal occurrence and robustness against nonlinear distortions, is numerically assessed over conventional random allocation strategy.