A Comparison of DCT-Based OFDM and DFT-Based OFDM in Frequency Offset and Fading Channels

A precise method for calculating the bit-error probability (BEP) of a discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system on additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels in the presence of frequency offset is derived. These accurate results are used to examine and compare the BEP performance of a DCT-OFDM system and the conventional discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-based OFDM system in an AWGN environment. Several signaling formats, such as binary phase-shift keying, quaternary phase-shift keying, and 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation are considered. The performance of a DCT-OFDM with a zero-padding guard-interval scheme is then compared with a zero-padded DFT-OFDM with the employment of minimum mean-square error (MMSE) detection and MMSE decision-feedback detection with ordering scheme over frequency-selective fast Rayleigh fading channels. Analysis and simulation results show that the DCT-OFDM system outperforms the DFT-OFDM system in the presence of frequency offset, and in frequency-selective fast-fading environments