An efficient algorithm for simulating error vector magnitude in nonlinear OFDM amplifiers

Abstract

We have developed an algorithm for evaluating the error vector magnitude (EVM) from the single-tone distortion of power amplifiers in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The developed formulas allow us to simulate EVM using only the single-tone response i.e. without modulation and demodulation; this enables us to easily calculate the EVM using a standard harmonic-balance (HB) simulator. This simulation scheme reduces the processing time by a factor of ten compared with conventional system-level (SL) simulation. The EVM obtained using this scheme agreed well with the results of SL simulation (0.6% error).