On Performance of MIMO-OFDM/TDM Using MMSE-FDE with Nonlinear HPA in a Multipath Fading Channel

Abstract

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) combined with time division multiplexing (OFDM/TDM) based on frequency domain equalization (FDE) has been proposed to reduce the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of OFDM and improve the bit error rate (BER) performance in comparison to the conventional OFDM. However, due to the nonlinearity of the high-power amplifier (HPA) at the transmitter and the fact that the PAPR problem is not completely eliminated, the nonlinear noise due to HPA saturation still degrades the BER performance. In this paper, we theoretically evaluate the effect of nonlinear HPA on the performance of MIMO-OFDM/TDM using a minimum-mean square-error frequency-domain equalizer (MMSE-FDE). We determine the equalization weights while taking into account the negative effect of HPA saturation and then evaluate the system performance in terms of average BER and ergodic capacity by way of both, numerical and computer simulation. Our simulation results have shown that appropriate system design can make MIMO-OFDM/TDM more robust against nonlinear degradation due to HPA saturation in comparison to MIMO-OFDM while reducing required signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the given target BER.