Communication Theory Transforming the distribution of OFDM signals for peak-to-average power ratio reduction

Large peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is the main drawback of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In this paper, a novel nonlinear scheme is proposed to reduce the PAPR. This scheme transforms the amplitude of original OFDM signals from Rayleigh distribution into beta distribution. Moreover, given different parameters, this scheme has different transformation expressions. It is demonstrated that the well-known companding schemes based on exponential function and error function are actually the special cases of the proposed scheme. Further, we derive another simpler expression of the proposed scheme. Simulation results show that the new transformation can achieve a better tradeoff between PAPR reduction and bit-error rate (BER) performance than the exponential function and error function companding schemes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.