On the symbol error probability of 16-QAM based OFDM systems impaired by carrier frequency offset

In this paper, an exact closed form of symbol error probability for square 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems impaired by carrier frequency offset (CFO) is derived under additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). For the derivation, we use the characteristic function (CHF) of the received signal with inter-carrier interference (ICI) terms to generate its probability density function (pdf) including the effect of cyclic prefix (CP) for practical applications. Computer simulation results validate the correctness of our theoretical approach and derivation.