A Tight Upper Bound on Bit Error Rate of Joint OFDM and Multi-Carrier Index Keying

TL;DR

This paper derives a precise closed-form approximation for the bit error rate in OFDM systems employing multi-carrier index keying, accounting for detection imperfections and validating results through simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a tight upper bound on BER for joint OFDM and multi-carrier index keying, enhancing performance analysis accuracy.

Findings

BER approximation is accurate within 1 dB in favorable channels

Derived expressions account for both index and complex domain errors

Validation confirms the effectiveness of the theoretical model

Abstract

This letter investigates performance enhancement by the concept of multi-carrier index keying in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. For the performance evaluation, a tight closed-form approximation of the bit error rate (BER) is derived introducing the expression for the number of bit errors occurring in both the index domain and the complex domain, in the presence of both imperfect and perfect detection of active multi-carrier indices. The accuracy of the derived BER results for various cases are validated using simulations, which can provide accuracy within 1 dB at favorable channels.