Peak Power Reduction in Multicarrier Waveforms

Modern wireless communication systems employ multicarrier waveforms, such as the widely-used Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and the recent OFDM with Offset-QAM (OFDM/OQAM) schemes. An inherent characteristic of these waveforms is the high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR). One of the last stages of the transmitter is the power amplifier, which needs specific attention as a major source of power consumption. For acceptable levels of power efficiency, the high PAPR issue causes distortion to the signal due to the nonlinearity of the power amplifier. This is a major drawback of multicarrier systems and, if not addressed properly, could overcome their advantages. The PAPR reduction has been a topic of research for many years. By introduction of the new generations of the wireless systems, and perseverance of the more complicated multicarrier waveforms in finding their way into the proposed enabling technologies, this problem has gained interest again. Despite the relatively long history of research and the huge available literature, the problem is, to a great extent, still open. Among the disadvantages of the previously suggested PAPR reduction techniques, high computational complexity and complicated adaptation to the schemes such as OFDM/OQAM are standing out. In this thesis, in addition to an in-depth review of the multicarrier waveforms in question, the two aforementioned issues are tackled. The challenges in adaptation of the PTS technique to the OFDM/OQAM are investigated. Concerning the general issue of high computational complexity, the feasibility of using interpolation instead of direct oversampling in PAPR measurement is studied. Depending on the bandwidth configuration, the interpolation could be remarkably beneficial