Turbo-coded OFDM transmission over a nonlinear channel

In this paper, deliberate level clipping and turbo coding are combined to achieve an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission system with a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) and a good performance. Using the linear approximation technique based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion, we first modify the metric computation for the turbo decoding in order to consider the distortion effects of the nonlinearity, caused by the Cartesian clipper. Also, this paper introduces a modified turbo decoder which simultaneously performs the data estimation and signal reconstruction. In other words, the turbo decoder iteratively recovers the clipped signal by using the estimated data, and then improves the data estimation by using the newly recovered signal. Numerical results are presented showing an improvement in the performance of the OFDM transmission system over the nonlinear channel, an increase in the efficiency of the high power amplifier (HPA), and/or an expansion of the transmitter coverage area.