A novel peak-to-average power ratio reduction method for coded OFDM systems

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is an attractive technique for wideband wireless communication applications. However, the inherent high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of OFDM signal can result in low power efficiency and nonlinear distortion at the transmit power amplifier. In this paper, we propose a PAPR reduction scheme for coded OFDM systems, in which a convolutional channel code is deployed. The proposed PAPR reduction method is based on the selective mapping (SLM) technique and no explicit side information is needed at the receiver side. The decoding complexity is almost the same as the one without the PAPR reduction scheme. There is no error propagation compared with conventional SLM methods. It can be directly extended to space-time coded OFDM systems, in which a convolutional code is used to achieve frequency diversity. Simulation results show that with a modest complexity increase of the transmitter, the PAPR of OFDM signals can be reduced greatly.