Error-Rate Analysis of OFDM Radio Link Over Mobile Rayleigh Channel Under Multiple RF Impairments

In this paper, we analyze the sensitivity of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing waveforms to the joint distortion effects of coexisting nonidealities in the implementation of transceiver radio frequency (RF) electronics, combined also with time variations of the multipath radio channel. To cope with the challenge in evaluation of error rates under non-Gaussian joint interference, we propose a semianalytical method for the evaluation of the uncoded symbol-error rate for an arbitrary rectangular quadrature amplitude modulation as subcarrier modulation. This allows deriving maximum tolerable impairment levels for RF circuits such that the link detection error rate is kept at a target level.