The performance and efficiency of envelope elimination and restoration transmitters for future multiple-input multiple-output wireless local area networks

Nesimoglu T., Parker S. C. J., Morris K. A., McGeehan J. P.

IET COMMUNICATIONS, vol.2, no.3, pp.473-483, 2008 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 2 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2008
  • Doi Number: 10.1049/iet-com:20070171
  • Journal Name: IET COMMUNICATIONS
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.473-483
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The inefficiency of contemporary power amplifiers ( PAs), when operating in their linear region, is a major obstacle to mobile operation of wireless local area networks ( WLANs) based on IEEE 802.11n. Therefore the use of more efficient envelope elimination and restoration ( EER) transmitter architectures is considered. In addition to high efficiency it is also necessary to satisfy the spectral mask and achieve satisfactory link- level performance. Link- level simulations of a contemporary WLAN PA show that, at the power back- offs necessary to achieve sufficient linearity, the power added efficiency ( PAE) is only similar to 1% for a system with four transmit antennas. In contrast, simulations of a phase feedback EER PA architecture show that it is possible to achieve an average PAE of 70%, while satisfying the spectral mask, with only a small degradation in link- level performance.