OFDM link performance with companding for PAPR reduction in the presence of non-linear amplification

Use of companding for peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) control is explored for a link involving a nonlinear transmit power amplifier with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Specifically, the objective of the study was to determine if companding using u-law compression/expansion at the transmitter/receiver, respectively, provides end-to-end performance gains relative to a system without companding. We consider the use of companding to ameliorate the impact of nonlinearities in the transmit amplifier. In the absence of companding, transmitter operation near saturation raises the signal level at the receiver but, because of the nonlinearities in the amplifier response, also results in distortion that impacts overall link performance. As the transmit power is backed-off from saturation, amplifier distortion is reduced, but error components due to lower SNR at the receiver become more significant. When companding is introduced in the system, the system is able to operate closer to saturation without substantial transmit distortion. However, requisite expansion of the compressed signal at the receiver yields noise amplification which can counteract any of the performance gains that would otherwise accrue from the increased SNR at the receiver. At issue is whether or not operating conditions exist (e.g., backoff, SNR, amplifier linearity model, etc) for which companding enhances the end-to-end performance relative to the link performance without companding. System simulation models were employed using Rapp's nonlinear power amplification models, where average symbol distance errors were used as performance metrics. We found that companding can provide very modest performance gains in comparison to systems that do not employ companding. Performance trends were corroborated in a hardware testbed with an amplifier chain, where average bit error rates were experimentally determined.