A discussion of the effects of amplifier back-off on OFDM

There has been increased interest in high data rate indoor communications systems using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). This paper details both simulation and experimental results, regarding the sensitivity of such signals to amplifier nonlinearities. In particular the relationship between BER degradation and required amplifier back-off for a given 1 dB compression and IP/sub 3/ intercept point is investigated. The sensitivity of the system is shown for a full BER curve, ranging down to a BER of approximately 10/sup -4/.