BER Analysis of OFDM Systems Impaired by Phase Noise in Frequency-Selective Fading Channels

In this paper, we study the effect of finite-power, phase-locked loop based phase noise on the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in frequency-selective fading channels. It is well known the impact of phase noise on the performance of an OFDM system can be divided into a multiplicative term called common phase error (CPE) and an additive term called intercarrier interference (ICI). Based on the conditional Gaussian approximation technique, we first derive the BER formulas for BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, and 64-QAM modulated OFDM signals in frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels. To further quantify the individual influence of the CPE and the ICI on system performance for different phase noise spectra, we derive the BER expressions for perfect CPE compensation cases. The analytical results obtained for frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels are then generalized to frequency-selective Rician fading channels. Simulation results not only validate the accuracy of our analysis but also show the dependency of BERs on the shapes of phase noise spectra.