Comparisons of 16QAM Modulation Schemes Considering PAPR for Single-Carrier FDMA Radio Access in Evolved UTRA Uplink

This paper compares the achievable packet error rate and throughput performance levels of 16QAM modulation schemes considering the peak-to-average power ratio for single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in the evolved UTRA uplink. Simulation results show that the effective required average received signal energy per symbol-to-noise power spectrum density ratio (E_s/N₀) including the cubic metric (CM) of the (8, 8) star 16QAM modulation scheme is decreased by approximately 0.8 dB compared to that of the square 16QAM modulation scheme using turbo coding with the coding rate of R=1/3 in the six-ray Typical Urban channel model, when the amplitude ratio between the inner and outer ring, R_radius, is equal to 1.2. The results also show that although the star 16QAM modulation scheme reduces the effective required average received E_s/N₀ including the CM compared to the square 16QAM modulation scheme, this merit is concealed by the application of low modulation schemes such as QPSK and 8PSK when adaptive modulation and coding is applied. Therefore, we conclude that the square 16QAM modulation scheme is an appropriate candidate for SC-FDMA radio access in the evolved UTRA uplink