Performance analysis of coded OFDM on fading channels with non-ideal interleaving and channel knowledge

We investigate the coded bit-error rate (BER) in an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system in a Rayleigh-fading channel. The system uses a pilot-based channel estimator and the effects of non-ideal channel knowledge and non-ideal interleaving are analysed. The coded BER is estimated with an analytical method proposed by Cavers and Ho, which involves truncation of the union bound. For channels with several propagation paths the estimated BER agrees well with simulations. The transfer function bound may however in some cases diverge, thus reducing the accuracy of the estimated BER. We show that this can be the case for channels with few propagation paths.