Theoretical Analysis of Performance Degradation
due to Phase Noise and I/Q Imbalance in OFDM
Direct Conversion Systems
Yin Wang, Ke Gong, Zhaowu Chen
Department of EE, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 100084
wangyin00@mails.tsinghua.edu.com, gongk@tju.edu.cn, czw@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
Abstract Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(OFDM) has been widely used for its robustness against
multipath fading and low-complexity implementation. However,
OFDM system, especially with large number of subcarriers and
high modulation order, is severely affected by the phase noise
of oscillators. Meanwhile, zero intermediate frequency (ZIF)
technology is an attractive candidate to avoid costly image
rejection filters, and allows easier integration than classical
super-heterodyne structure. However, the analog hardware will
cause IQ imbalance between the I- and Q- branches. Knowledge
about the quantitative link between the signal degradation
and hardware parameters is essential for a reasonable design
of the ZIF-OFDM system. In this paper, we investigate joint
effects of phase noise and I/Q imbalance on OFDM signals, and
propose analytical equations to calculate the signal distortions
evaluated by error vector magnitude (EVM). Theoretical
analysis is in particular capable to deal with PLL phase noise
and frequency-selective I/Q imbalance. Moreover, it indicates
that distortions due to PLL phase noise can be calculated from
power density spectrum (PDS) of oscillators, which is simply to
be measured by spectrum analyzers. Simulation results show
perfect agreement with those obtained by theoretical analysis,
which could be used to estimate ZIF-OFDM system degradation
and instruct system designs, with no need to run extensive
simulations.
I. INTRODUCTION
Due to high efficiency in the use of available bandwidth
and good performance in combating multipath fading, OFDM
has been employed as the transmission method of many
standards, such as European digital audio broadcasting (DAB)
and digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) programs
[1] [2]. Meanwhile, some research programs have been looking
at the possibility of using OFDM for broad-band cellular
distribution systems of digital TV and interactive services,
at carrier frequencies in the range of 40GHz and up [3].
At such frequencies, phase noise of the oscillators is a new
significant source of impairment, since OFDM, especially with
large number of subcarriers and high modulation order, is
more sensitive to phase noise than single-carrier modulation
schemes [4].
Zero intermediate frequency (ZIF) transceivers are very
appealing due to no costly analog image rejection filters, lower
analog component count, higher flexibility and easier integra-
tion compared with traditional super-heterodyne architecture
[5]. However, the limited accuracy of the analog hardware
causes mismatches between the components in the I- and the
Q- branch of the transceiver, known as I/Q imbalance [6].
Knowledge about the relationship between quantitative sig-
nal degradation and transceiver parameters (such as power
density spectrum (PDS) and image rejection ratio (IRR))
is essential for the design and implementation of OFDM
communication/broadcasting systems. Given a target signal
degradation requirement, the system architects and designers
need to know the suitable transceiver parameters to realize that
goal. Traditionally, that knowledge is achieved by rich system
design experience, strict hardware measurement or computer
simulations. However, for most situations, those approaches
are very subjective, condition-limited and time-consuming. As
a result, a comprehensive theoretical analysis is in urgent need
to instruct system designs.
Several preliminary researches on theoretical analysis have
been investigated. For example, in [4], analytical results of
bit error ratio (BER) degradation of single-carrier/multi-carrier
system induced by phase noise is provided, while in [7], signal
distortions induced by system nonlinearities and phase noise
are given. However, analysis in both papers are based on
Wiener phase noise, which only characterizes free-running os-
cillators that are seldom used in modern ZIF-OFDM systems.
In [8], error vector magnitude (EVM) degradations due to gain,
phase imbalance and phase noise are examined. The work is
focused on single-carrier, linear and memoryless modulated
signals such as QAM. In [9], sample error ratio (SER) degra-
dation due to I/Q imbalance and Rayleigh fading channel in
multi-carrier ZIF transceivers has been given. Reference [10]
develops a new estimation/compensation scheme to jointly
combat the I/Q imbalance and phase noise at baseband.
Although joint effects can be inferred if no correction scheme
is applied, the results given are based only on simulations.
Therefore, theoretical analysis of performance degradation on
MQAM-OFDM systems induced by both PLL phase noise
and I/Q imbalance is still missing, which is very useful in
instructing practical ZIF-OFDM system designs. The goal of
this paper is to contribute towards closing this gap.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section
II describes typical models for MQAM-OFDM system, phase
noise and I/Q imbalance. Section III deals with the analysis of
signal distortions evaluated by error vector magnitude (EVM).
In Section IV & V, simulation validations and conclusions are
discussed.
 OFDM-MODULATOR
Non-Fading AWGN 60

M-QAM an S/P IFFT P/S

sn
MOD 65
1 fs
fs " fs un

Phase Noise PDS (dB)

vn
!t N 70
j
e n

Phase Noise
75
bn
80
k s (n), ki (n)

IQ imbalance 85
OFDM-DEMODULATOR
rn
M-QAM
zn 90
P/S FFT S/P k s#1 (n) 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 2000 4000 6000 8000
DEMOD fs f (Hz)
fs
N
fs Channel Equalization

Fig. 2. PDS L (f ) of PLL modeled phase noise process

Fig. 1. ZIF-OFDM block diagrams in the presence of I/Q imbalance and
phase noise

Wiener-L` evy model, which can well characterize the free-

running voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO) [12]. The equiv-
II. SYSTEM MODEL
alent digital baseband noisy carrier P is
A. Transmission System Model
P ,diag(ejn ) = diag(en1 +n ) (5)
The basic principles of OFDM techniques have been de-
scribed in detail in [11]. The transmitter and receiver block Where ejn is the equivalent digital baseband noisy carrier.
diagrams of an ZIF-OFDM system are shown in Fig. 1. In The PDS of the noisy carrier turns out to be Lorenzian [12]
this paper, phase noise and I/Q imbalance induced by the 2 1
ZIF down-converter and up-converter branches are combined Le (f ) =
B [1 + (2f /B)2 ]
together.
where the parameter B denotes the two-sided 3-dB bandwidth.
Let fs = 1/t be the sampling rate of the information
The parameter n is a random phase increment in the nth
signal and N the number of sub-carriers, so the OFDM symbol
time slot of length t and {n } ends up as a sequence of
period T = N t = N/fs . A block of data is transmitted as
i.i.d. Gaussian random vector (r.v.), with variance [12]
an OFDM symbol, which is denoted by
2 BT
A , a0 , a1 , , aN 1 T (1) . = 2
N
T Previous researches [4][7] have provided quantitative re-
where [] is the transposition operation. Each block is passed
sults of system degradation by adopting the Wiener-L` evy
through the IDFT operation:
model. In practise, however, normally a phase-locked loop
= F A
S (2) (PLL) is used to generated a carrier with a stable frequency.
In a PLL, for frequencies below the tracking loop bandwidth,
where F is the unitary discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix the phase noise of the PLL output is determined mainly by the
of size N defined by phase noise of the reference oscillator, which is usually smaller
1 j2ik than the VCO phase noise, while for frequencies larger than
[F ] , e N i, k = {0, 1, , N 1}. (3) the tracking loop bandwidth, the phase noise is dominated by
N
the VCO phase noise [12]. The typical model to characterize
be the demodulated block of signal, which is based on
Let Z this type of oscillators is referred in [13], which has been

an N -point DFT of the received signal R accepted as a standard phase noise model in the European
dTTb project. The PDS of the noise carrier is given through
= F R.
Z (4) the PDS of n (L (f )), which specifies
equals S.
As a result, the a
When the channel is ideal, R 10 : |f |f1
b(f f )
detected data block Z equals the transmitted data block A. c 1
10 + 10 2 1 a : f1 < f < fs
f f (6)

b(f +f1 )a
B. Phase Noise Model 10 f2 f1 : fs < f < f1
Two phase noise models are adopted to investigate the where L (f ) is periodic function with T = t/2.
effects of phase noise generated by oscillators. One is called Typical parameters are: a = 6.5, b = 4, c = 10.5, f1 = 1
 TABLE I
kHz and f2 = 10 kHz. A plot of L (f ) for these values
P EAK - TO - MEAN RATIOS FOR MQAM-OFDM SIGNALS
is shown in Fig.2. The integral of PDS over the frequency
domain could be calculated as QAM format Peak-to-mean voltage ratio (V)
f2 f1 4 1
2[f1 (10c + 10a ) + 10a ]. (7)
b ln 10 16 1.341
C. I/Q imbalance Model 32 1.303
64 1.527
Let bn represent the received complex signal before being
distorted by the I/Q imbalance caused by analog processing.
The distorted signal in the time domain can be modeled as where (see section II)
[14] (see Fig.1)
Ks = diag(ks (k)),
rn = ks (n)bn + ki (n)bn . (8) Ki = diag(ki (k)),
Note, this model is capable to deal with frequency-selective P = diag(ej(k) ). (14)
I/Q imbalance as well. The distortion parameters ks (n) and
After a perfect zero-forcing equalizer, the received block of
ki (n) are related to the amplitude and phase imbalances
OFDM signal is then demodulated as
between the I and Q branches in the analog ZIF converting
process. Supposing (g(n), (n)) are adopted to character- = F K 1 R
Z = F P Y + F Kr conj(P Y ) (15)
s
ize the amplitude and phase imbalance at subcarrier n. The
where
parameters (ks (n), ki (n)) are related to (g(n), (n)) via ki (k)
Kr = diag( ). (16)
1 + g(n)ej(n) ks (k)
ks (n) , p
2(1 + g(n)2 ) when (k) is small, standard one-order approximation
ej(k) 1 j(k) can hold. In this case, the phase
1 g(n)ej(n)
ki (n) , p (9) noise matrix P can be approximated as
2(1 + g(n)2 )
P I j (17)
according to [14]. It can be easily shown that
with
|ks (n)|2 + |ki (n)|2 = 1. = diag((k)). (18)
The IRR becomes a function of frequency at subcarrier n Combining (1)-(18), after some straightforward algebra, we
can derive the signal distortion after demodulation
ks (n)
IRR(n) = | |2 . (10) ,Z
Z A = jF (F A + V ) +
ki (n)
F V + F Kr (I + j)(F A
+ V ) (19)
Ideally, this value approaches to infinity. However, with to-
days technologies, the IRR is limited to only 30-40 dB [9]. Considering the following properties which are normally sat-
isfied in OFDM systems:
III. EVM ANALYSIS INDUCED BY PHASE NOISE 1) all data transmitted before OFDM modulation with the
AND I/Q IMBALANCE same power, i.e. E|a(k)|2 = E|a(m)|2 = Srms 2
=
2
A. Distortion Calculation , k6=m for all subcarriers,
To focus on the effects induced by phase noise and IQ 2) data transmitted on different subcarriers are statistically
imbalance in ZIF-OFDM systems, a frequency-flat channel independent, i.e. E[a(k)a(m) ] = 0, k6=m.
with additive Gaussian noise is assumed. The received block of With those assumptions, it can be easily shown that W
data before being distorted by phase noise and I/Q imbalance E(A H W A)
= 2 tr(W )
can be written as
E(V H W V ) = v2 tr(W )
Y = F A
+ V , (11) E(A H F H W F A)
=

where tr(F W F ) = 2 tr(W )

2 H
(20)

V = v0 , v1 , , vN 1 (12) where the similar transformation of a matrix does not change
its trace. Combining (19)(20), we can derive the variance of
is an additive white noise vector, each element of which has signal distortion as
variance v2 . Let (k) be the phase noise and (ks (k), ki (k))
the I/Q imbalance parameters for subcarrier k, the received 2 = 2 tr(||2 + |Kr |2 (I + ||2 )) +
E|Z|
block of OFDM signal after distortion is v2 tr((I + |Kr |2 )(I + ||2 )) (21)
= Ks P Y + Ki conj(P Y ),
R (13)
 0.3 Simulation
0.5 Theory
Simulation QPSK

Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)

Theory
QPSK
0.25
0.4
Error Vector Magnitude

16QAM
16QAM
0.2
0.3

64QAM
0.15
64QAM 0.2

0.1
0.1

0.05
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0
BT 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Image Rejection Ratio (dB)

Fig. 3. EVM degradation versus BT with amplitude imbalance 10% and Fig. 4. EVM degradation versus IRR in the presence of Wiener phase noise
phase noise 10 with BT = 2.24E-3

B. EVM Analysis
Error vector magnitude (EVM) is a comprehensive mea-
surement parameter that includes, not only Gaussian noise,
but also all other uncorrectable impairments of the received
constellations. Therefore, it is employed to characterize signal
distortion. When a time record of N received symbol coordi-
nate pairs is captured, EVM is defined as [15]
v 2048, modulation scheme of M = 4, 16, 64, symbol period
u 1 PN 1
u (I 2 + Q2k )
EV M = t N k=0 2 k . (22)
Smax
The error vector (Ik , Qk ) is defined as the distance from
this ideal constellation position to the actual position of the
received symbol, while Smax is the magnitude of the vector
to the outermost state of the constellation. The value V =
Smax /Srms is calculated by considering the peak to mean
of all the constellation points. Table I lists the peak-to-mean
voltage ratios for the MQAM-OFDM constellation sizes. It is
reasonable to assume |(k)|2 1 and IRR(k) 1. As
a result, the EVM expectation of the distorted OFDM signal
can be reduced to
qP
N 1 2
k=0 (|(k)| + 1/IRR(k) + 1/SN R)
qR NV
L (f )df + 1/IRR + 1/SN R
() (23)
V
where
2 the model depicted in section II-B. A very good agreement
SN R = 2 (24)
v
denotes the signal noise ratio of the OFDM modulated signal
after Gaussian white noise channel. The (*) equation holds
when phase noise is loose stationary, which indicates the
integral of PDS over frequency domain equals to self-relative
function R (0). The (*) equation can describe the frequency-
selective I/Q imbalance as well. In that situation, the IRR
value refers to the arithmetic average of IRR(k) among all
the subcarrier channels.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
An MQAM-OFDM system illustrated in Fig. 1 has been
simulated to validate the analytical suppositions. The parame-
ters used in simulations are OFDM symbol length of N =
of T = 224s. The SNR after Gaussian add noise channel
is 39dB. Results of 1000 OFDM frames are averaged to
compared with the analytical predictions.
In Fig. 3, Wiener phase noise model is adopted to illustrate
the EVM degradation verse different phase noise values. Note,
in section II-B, the parameter BT could be used to express the
Wiener phase noise. As a result, a serial of EVM-BT curves
are drawn with fixed amplitude imbalance g = 10% and phase
imbalance = 10 . They are typical I/Q imbalance values
achieved by modern ZIF technologies[14]. It can be noticed
that theoretical results are in strong accord with these obtained
by simulations. However, there are slight difference between
theoretical and simulation curves. It is because when BT is
large, the linear approximation is not well satisfied. For BT
= 0, that is, no phase noise, the EVM approximates 0.07.
For BT = 0.005, the EVM approximates 0.1, which infers
EVM degradation is so severe that arithmetics must be used
to compensate those distortions [10].
Fig.4 reports EVM verse IRR in the present of Wiener
phase noise BT = 2.24E-3. The Wiener phase noise follows
between theoretical and simulated results can be achieved.
This figure could demonstrate the frequency-selective I/Q
imbalance as well. In that situation, the IRR chosen refers
to the arithmetic average among all the subcarrier channels.
Fig. 5 adopts the PLL phase noise with a total integrated
power of K=-29 dBc (with the parameters from Fig. 2). The
PLL phase noise is generated from the PDS with supposition
of linear phase. Note that, the integral of PDS among the

Simulation
0.5
Theory
Error Vector Magnitude (EVM)
QPSK
0.4
16QAM
0.3
0.2
64QAM
0.1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Image Rejection Ratio (dB)
Fig. 5. EVM degradation versus IRR in the presence of PLL phase noise
with PDS shown in Fig.2
frequency domain (see equation (7)) can be used to replace
the average power of phase noise according to the relationship
between PDS and self-relative function on condition that phase
noise process satisfies loose stationariness regulation. Perfect
agreements can also be observed in Fig. 5, which validates
that analytical results could give good system degradation
predictions in the presentence of PLL phase noise, as soon as
the PDS of phase noise is provided. It also indicates, we could
use spectrum analyzers to capture the frequency characteristics
and calculate the EVM degradation without knowing the exact
signal of phase noise.
V. C ONCLUSION
A demonstrative ZIF-OFDM framework in the presence of
phase noise and I/Q imbalance for theoretical computation of
error vector magnitude (EVM) has been derived in this paper.
A compact relationship between EVM and image rejection
ratio IRR, |(k)|2 , SNR is established, which can be used
to calculate Wiener phase noise and frequency-selective I/Q
imbalance. For this kind of I/Q imbalance, the parameter IRR
refers to arithmetic average among all subcarrier channels.
PLL phase noise can be dealt with as well. In particular, when
phase noise satisfies loose stationariness regulation, power
density spectrum PDS can be adopted to replace the total
sum of phase noise power |(k)|2 . It indicates that engineers
can use spectrum analyzers to measure the PDS of oscillators,
and predict the performance degradation due to PLL phase
noise. Computer simulations have confirmed aforementioned
theoretical results. Therefore, the theoretical analysis given has
strong meaning in instructing practical engineering, helping
system designers evaluate the EVM degradation and realize
design targets without running complex and time-consuming
simulations. Furthermore, extern limitations of the system
model towards fading channels and transmitted non-linearities
are desirable. A solution of these issues is under active
research.
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