Pilot-Based Compensation of Frequency-Selective I/Q Imbalances in Direct-Conversion OFDM Transmitters

This paper presents a pilot-based compensation algorithm for mitigation of frequency-selective I/Q imbalances in direct-conversion OFDM transmitters. By deploying a feedback loop from RF to baseband, together with a properly-designed pilot signal structure, the I/Q imbalance properties of the transmitter are efficiently estimated in a subcarrier-wise manner. Based on the obtained I/Q imbalance knowledge, the imbalance effects on the actual transmit waveform are then mitigated by baseband pre-distortion acting on the mirror-subcarrier signals. The compensation performance of the proposed structure is analyzed using extensive computer simulations, indicating that very high image rejection ratios can be achieved in practical system set-ups with reasonable pilot signal lengths.