Investigation of the effects of digital-to-analog converters on OFDM-based modulations with gaussian signal distribution

Kollár, Zsolt (2026) Investigation of the effects of digital-to-analog converters on OFDM-based modulations with gaussian signal distribution. PHYSICAL COMMUNICATION, 74. No. 102962. ISSN 18744907

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Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) on the generation of multicarrier signals, with a focus on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). A mathematical framework is developed to model DAC behavior in this context, and its performance is analytically evaluated. First, a closed-form expression is derived for the optimal clipping threshold under uniform quantization, expressed as a function of DAC bit resolution. Then, an improved optimization strategy is introduced for allocating non-uniform quantization levels to maximize the Signal-to-Distortion and Quantization Ratio (SDQR) at the DAC output. An upper bound on SDQR is further established using the Lloyd-Max quantization method. The influence of these quantization schemes on overall system performance—including bit error rate and spectral characteristics—is also assessed. The results apply to multicarrier systems with Gaussian-distributed signals and can be extended to related communication and signal-processing scenarios.

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