RF Analog Impairments Modeling for Communication Systems Simulation. Application to OFDM-based Transceivers

With the growing complexity of personal mobile communication systems demanding higher data-rates and high levels of integration using low-cost CMOS technology, overall system performance has become more sensitive to RF analog front-end impairments. Designing integrated transceivers requires a thorough understanding of the whole transceiver chain including RF analog front-end and digital baseband. Communication system engineers have to include RF analog imperfections in their simulation benches in order to study and quantify their impact on the system performance. Here the author explores key RF analog impairments in a transceiver and demonstrates how to model their impact…