Analytical performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems impaired by a non-linear high-power amplifier with memory

The performance of modern communication transmitters utilising multi-carrier modulation techniques is highly sensitive to non-linear distortions arising mainly from the high-power amplifier (HPA). In addition, the wideband characteristics of multi-carrier signals result in frequency-dependent distortions, typically known as memory effects. This study aims to analytically evaluate the impact of the distortion induced by non-linear HPA with memory on a multi-carrier signal exemplified by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). The behavioural model of HPA considered for theoretical analysis is a memory polynomial model, which is a truncated form of the Volterra series. In the theoretical framework developed, this study shows that memory in HPA considerably degrades the performance of OFDM in terms of symbol error rate (SER), and the distortion itself can be canonically characterised by a complex attenuation component and a non-linear noise component. Closed-form expressions for SER in additive white Gaussian noise channel are derived and the SER for fading channel is approximated by the adaptive Gauss-Kronrod quadrature method. Simulation results are shown for a realistic HPA, based on the Wiener-Hammerstein model, and compared with the analytical results to validate the proposed analysis.