Determining the power rating of a multichannel linear amplifier

The demand for increased capacity in cellular and other radio networks has led to the development of more flexible base stations. As a result, the high-level combining of multiple amplifiers, with the stringent frequency planning constraints which this imposes, has been supplanted by a single multichannel linear amplifier in an increasing number of systems. The specification of such systems is a complicated issue, owing to the complex nature of the combined signal which they are required to amplify. The authors present a statistical analysis of the peak envelope power of a multicarrier signal, incorporating a variety of modulation schemes, and show that for a large number of channels, significant savings in the amplifier power rating may be made, resulting in decreased hardware and operating costs for multichannel base stations