Analysis and comparison of clipping techniques for OFDM Peak-to-Average Power Ratio reduction

One of the main disadvantages of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is its high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), which significantly reduces the efficiency of the High Power Amplifier (HPA). Due to the simplest way for PAPR reduction, clipping techniques are frequently used in practice for OFDM PAPR reduction. In this paper, Classical-Clipping (CC), Heavyside-Clipping (HC), Deep-Clipping (DC) and Smooth-Clipping (SC) are implemented for reducing the PAPR of an OFDM system. The effectiveness of these techniques in terms of PAPR-reduction, average power variation and total system degradation are evaluated. From the analysis and simulation results, it is very difficult to say which of these four is the best. But, because of its flexibility in PAPR reduction, in total system degradation and in average power variation, DC technique appears to be the best of the four.