832 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 9, NO.

9, SEPTEMBER 2005
Denition of Efcient PAPR in OFDM
Dov Wulich
AbstractA high PAPR is a main drawback of OFDM. There
are many methods for reducing the PAPR with an ultimate goal
of reducing the PAPR as much as possible. It is shown that
if, among other factors, the power efciency-PAPR relationship
of the power amplier is also taken into account, then there
exists a PAPR level for which the BER reaches a minimal value.
This PAPR may be used as a denition of an efcient PAPR.
The efcient PAPR is not necessary the lowest possible value of
PAPR.
Index TermsOFDM, PAPR, power amplier.
I. INTRODUCTION
I
T IS widely recognized that a high Peak-to-Average Power
Ratio (PAPR) is a main drawback of OFDM as the dynamic
range of the PAPR may be very high.
OFDM requires that the whole communication track will
be linear within the dynamic range that ts the distribution
of PAPR. Usually there is a problem with a linear Power
Amplier (PA) due to fact that its power efciency is upper
bounded and this upper bound decreases as the PAPR (the
dynamic range of the PA) increases [4]. This is the main reason
why many PAPR reduction schemes have been proposed [1,
2, 8, 9] with ultimate goal of reducing the PAPR as much as
possible. Such action is not without cost: the Bit Error Rate
(BER) of the information bits increases as the reduced PAPR
decreases assuming constant Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).
This statement has been proved for three different PAPR
reduction schemes considered here: clipping, tone reservation
and selected mapping. However it is believed that such a
phenomenon is a general one and is true for any PAPR
reduction algorithm.
The question is how to determine the operational PAPR
for which some efciency criterion will reach an extreme
value: minimum or maximum? Here we consider the BER
of information bits as such a criterion and we will look for a
PAPR for which the BER will be minimal.
To answer this question it is proposed to take into con-
sideration, among other factors, the power efciency-PAPR
relationship of the PA to determine the operational PAPR.
It is shown that there exists a PAPR for which the BER
of information bits reaches a minimal value. This PAPR is
dened as an efcient PAPR.
As mentioned, three different PAPR reduction schemes,
i.e., clipping, tone reservation and selected mapping, are
Manuscript received February 20, 2005. The associate editor coordinating
the review of this letter and approving it for publication was Dr. Sarah Kate
Wilson. This work was supported by the Consortium REMON under Grant
84466401.
Dov Wulich is with the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
ing, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Isreal (e-mail:
dov@ee.bgu.ac.il).
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/LCOMM.2005.09027.
considered just to illustrate the principle of an efcient PAPR.
An example which analyzes in detail a clipping-based PAPR
reduction method is also given.
It should be pointed out that this letter does not propose
one more method of PAPR reduction. A method for nding
the efcient PAPR to work with is proposed. This method is
general and may be used for any PAPR reduction scheme.
However the specic efcient PAPR obtained depends on the
specic PAPR reduction scheme used as well as on the power
efciency-PAPR relationship.
II. BACKGROUND
A. PAPR
The output of the OFDM modulator, is given by
s (t, a) =
N1

n=0
|a
n
| cos [(
0
+n) t +
n
], 0 t T,
(1)
where a := [a
0
, a
1
, ..., a
N1
], and a
n
:= |a
n
| e
j
n
, n =
0, 1, 2, ..., N 1. All symbols a
n
, n = 0, 1, 2, ..., N 1 are
taken from the same constellation
_
a
(1)
, a
(2)
, ..., a
(M)
_
. Let
A
max
:= max
1mM

a
(m)

(2)
be the upper bound of the constellation. It is assumed that
E
_
|a
n
|
2
_
= 0.5.
The instantaneous (per symbol) peak to average power ratio-
IPAPR is dened as:
(a) := max
0tT
|s (t, a)|
2
_
E

1
T
T
_
0
|s (t, a)|
2
dt

. (3)
The IPAPR is a random variable (rv) and its distribution, for
large N is given by [3]
Pr ( ) 1
_
1 e

_
N
. (4)
In (4) is used instead of (a). The maximal value of the
r.v. is

max
= A
2
max
N. (5)
TABLE I
Class G [%] g
A 58.7 0.1247
B
1
90.7 0.1202
1
It is assumed that non-linear distortions due to cross-over are negligibly
small.
1089-7798/05$20.00 c 2005 IEEE
WULICH: DEFINITION OF EFFICIENT PAPR IN OFDM 833
B. Efciency of linear power amplier
The use of OFDM, as with any other linear modulation,
dictates the use of a linear, within its dynamic range, PA.
PA efciency depends on the PAPR and the efciency
increases monotonically as the PAPR decreases. The specic
relationship = () depends on the class of the PA and on
its particular design. The theoretical efciency upper limits for
classes A and B PA are given by [4, Fig. 1]:
= Gexp (g
dB
) , (6)
where the efciency is in [%] and the PAPR,
dB
is in [dB].
The values of G and g are given in Table.1.
III. EFFICIENT PAPR
Let now s (t, a) be an OFDM signal at the output of some
PAPR reduction scheme that guarantees that the reduced PAPR
is less then or equal to
th
. The probability of bit error, P
b
depends on
th
and it is assumed that P
b
increases as
th
decreases. The validity of this assumption will be discussed
later. P
b
also depends on SNR and decreases as SNR
increases. On the other hand, the SNR depends on efciency
according to
SNR =
P
supply
T
N
0
, (7)
where P
supply
is a given supply power of the PA.
Introducing (6) (with not in dB) into (7) and setting =

th
yields
SNR =
G

(10g/ln 10)
th

P
supply
T
N
0
. (8)
It is clearly seen from (8) that for P
supply
= const, SNR
increases as
th
decreases. Therefore P
b
depends on
th
directly and via SNR: P
b
= P
b
(
th
, SNR(
th
)).
The differential of P
b
@
(o)
th
is
dP
b
= d
th
+ dSNR, (9)
where =
P
b

th

(o)
th
and =
P
b
SNR

SNR
_

(o)
th
_
. But SNR
depends on
th
, see (8), and therefore we have:
dSNR = d
th
, (10)
where =
dSNR
d
th

(o)
th
. Introducing (10) into (9) yields:
dP
b
= d
th
+ d
th
=
=
_

(o)
th
_
d
th
+
_

(o)
th
_
d
th
, (11)
where
_

(o)
th
_
=
_
SNR
_

(o)
th
__

_

(o)
th
_
.
From the assumption (P
b
increases as
th
decreases) it
follows that
_

(o)
th
_
< 0 for all
(o)
th
. P
b
is a decreasing
function of SNR and therefore
_
SNR
_

(o)
th
__
< 0 for all
SNR
_

(o)
th
_
. On the other hand, from (8)
_

(o)
th
_
< 0 and
therefore
_

(o)
th
_
> 0 for all
(o)
th
.
From (11), for d
th
0, we have

P
b
_

(o)
th
_
=
_

(o)
th
_
+
_

(o)
th
_
. (12)
Because
_

(o)
th
_
< 0 and
_

(o)
th
_
> 0 there may exist
such a
(o)
th
for which

P
b
_

(o)
th
_
= 0, i.e., a minimum of P
b
is expected.
It is proposed to dene

eff
:= arg
_
min
0<
th

max
P
b
(
th
)
_
(13)
as an efcient PAPR, if it exists.
It should be pointed out that in order to obtain the SNR
according to (9) the PA should be congured to get the
efciency that follows from a relationship = (): eq. (6)
for example.
To illustrate the above let us consider three different PAPR
reduction schemes.
A. PAPR reduction by clipping
Suppose the OFDM signal is clipped at a level th yielding
a PAPR that is less than or equal to
th
. The probability of
error is given by [3,5]
P
b
=

P
e
P
clip
+P
e
(1 P
clip
) , (14)
where P
clip
= Pr ( >
th
),

P
e
is the probability of error
when the symbol is clipped and P
e
denotes the probability of
error for an unclipped symbol.
P
clip
depends on
th
and, according to (4), increases as

th
decreases.

P
e
depends on both
th
and SNR, but usually
the inuence of
th
is a dominant one and

P
e
increases as

th
decreases. P
e
depends only on SNR and therefore P
b
increases as
th
decreases and therefore < 0.
B. PAPR reduction by tone reservation [8]
Tone reservation is based on modulating the reserved sub-
carriers to obtain, for a given data block, a minimum PAPR.
Suppose that such a minimal PAPR is less than or equal to

th
. Of course, the natural question is how to decrease
th
?
The answer is to increase the number of reserved tones. This
however will decrease the number of information-carrying
tones. Assuming that the net data rate must be constant, a
decrease in the number of information-carrying tones means
that less power is devoted to the information bits, and therefore
BER must increase. Consequently < 0.
C. PAPR reduction by selected mapping [9]
In the selected mapping approach, one OFDM signal with
the lowest PAPR is selected for transmission at the transmitter
from a set of sufciently different candidate signals, which all
represents the same data sequence. To detect the OFDM signal
at the receiver, appropriate side information indicating how the
transmitter generates the output signal must be sent along with
the information bearing signal. The actual PAPR is less than
or equal to
th
.
The question is how to decrease the
th
. The answer is to
increases the resolution of the side information. In order to
transmit the side information some amount of power, from the
total power budget is needed. Moreover, the power required
to transmit the side information increases as the resolution
of the side information increases leaving less power for the
834 IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, VOL. 9, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2005
2.5 dB
5 dB
7.5 dB
10 dB
Fig. 1. Bit error rate vs.
th
and indication of efcient PAPRs.
information-bearing signal. Consequently a decrease of
th
results in a BER increase, yielding < 0.
We may conclude that at least for the three PAPR reduction
schemes, our assumption that P
b
increases as
th
decreases is
valid.
IV. NUMERICAL EXAMPLE
Let us illustrate the concept of efcient PAPR using clipping
as a method of PAPR reduction. In [5, eq. (40)] an upper
bound on the probability of bit error P
b
(
th
) in AWGN is
given in a closed form for an arbitrary constellation. We will
inspect P
b
(
th
) vs.
th
(properly normalized) when the SNR
is updated according to (8).
Let us dene SNR
low
by introducing
th
=
max
in (8).
SNR
low
is the SNR obtained for the lowest possible PA
efciency. Fig. 1 shows P
b
(
th
) vs.
th
for class B power
amplier, M = 16 (16-QAM), N = 64 and SNR
low
=2.5 dB,
5 dB, 7.5 dB, 10dB as a parameter. Eq. (6) has been used
to illustrate the relationship = (). Inspection of Fig. 1
shows that
eff
1dB, 4dB, 6.5dB, 9dB respectively.
Suppose that someone wishes to work with BER = 3
10
5
. For the data shown in Fig. 1 there are, practically
speaking, four possibilities to get BER = 3 10
5
(indicated
by broken lines):
(i) SNR
low
=10dB and PAPR 14dB, (ii)
SNR
low
=7.5dB and PAPR 10dB, (iii) SNR
low
=5dB
and PAPR 4dB, (iv) SNR
low
=7.5dB and PAPR 3dB,
where it is assumed that in all four possibilities the PA
follows eq. (6). It is clear that not working at an efcient
PAPR (=4dB) costs a SNR loss of 2.5dB or even 5dB.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The effect of PAPR on BER is considered when the
efciency-PAPR relationship of the power amplier is taken
into consideration. It is shown that a PAPR may exist for
which the BER reaches a minimal value. It is proposed to
use it as a denition of an efcient PAPR. The efcient
PAPR exists for any PAPR reduction technique for which the
following statement is true: the BER of the information bits
increases as the reduced PAPR decreases.
Such an approach may be applied to other quality factors
such as outage probability or outage capacity.
It is shown that the idea of an efcient PAPR may serve as a
tool for system design when the efciency-PAPR relationship
of the power amplier is also taken into consideration.
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