Exact Symbol Error Rate And Total Degradation Performance Of Nonlinear M-Qan Fading Channels

In this paper, we derive the exact symbol error rate (SER) and total degradation (TD) performances of coherent Mary QAM constellations over nonlinear fading channels with maximum ratio combining (MRC) diversity. We analyze the combined effect of nonlinear distortion introduced by the high power amplifier (HPA) and multipath fading. Our results are used to optimize system parameters, such as ring ratios of circular QAM constellations and HPA-backoffs. Comparisons among five popular 16-ary constellations are also made for various nonlinear fading channels.