Bit-Error-Rate Estimation for OFDM Based Telecommunication Systems Schemes in the Presence of Nonlinear Distortions

The large number of carriers and the huge number of possible transmitted symbols in an Orthogonal Frequency Domain Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation makes it a challenge to estimate the Bit-Error-Rate (BER) in the presence of nonlinear distortion. This paper proposes a quasi analytical method for estimating the BER of such OFDM modulation schemes using a relative small number of measurements on the nonlinear circuit. The presented theory is compared with Monte Carlo simulations and is demonstrated on RF measurements. The latter are performed on an RF amplifier using a vectorial nonlinear network analyser.