Impact of nonlinearities in multiple-antenna OFDM transceivers

This paper investigates the performance impact of nonlinearities in the transmitter (TX) as well as the receiver (RX) of multiple-antenna OFDM systems. First different, previously proposed, nonlinearity models are reviewed and their equivalence is shown. Subsequently, analytical expressions are derived for the probability of error of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) OFDM systems in Rayleigh-faded channels, which show good agreement with results from a simulation study. It can be concluded from the results that for high SNR values the TX nonlinearities cause performance floors, which are independent of the MIMO configuration. For RX nonlinearities, however, the performance in this high SNR region does depend on the MIMO configuration. The results can be used to derive limits for the permissible nonlinearities in MIMO OFDM systems