16 QAM-OFDM receiver using 1-bit ADC for noise utilization: Characterization in fading channels with large amplitude fluctuations

Abstract

The performance of 1-bit Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC) receivers is vulnerable to degradation in environments with significant signal amplitude fluctuations, due to quantization errors inherent in binary outputs. Thus, it becomes crucial to verify the effectiveness of 1-bit ADC receivers under such conditions. In this study, we conduct an evaluation of previously proposed 1-bit ADC receivers in Rician and Rayleigh fading channels, where both signal amplitude and phase exhibit dynamic fluctuations. We confirm the effectiveness of 1-bit ADC receivers in such fading environments. However, we observe that the degree of degradation of Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) versus Bit Error Rate (BER) due to signal amplitude and phase variations depends on the employed demodulation method.