Two improved SLM methods for PAPR and BER reduction in OFDM–ROF systems

•We proposed two methods which can reduce PAPR and BER in OFDM–ROF systems.•Proposed ED-SLM method use EPD to detect signals without SI.•Proposed SLM takes a matrix as phase sequences and superimposed on the data signals.•Proposed SLM can obtain good PAPR and BER performance than traditional methods.•Detail analysis about the PAPR and BER performance are shown in paper.

OFDM–ROF (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing–radio over fiber) system has high spectral efficiency and high transmission rate. However, due to the non-linear power amplifier, the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmission signals is one of the major setbacks in the OFDM–ROF transmission systems. In order to reduce PAPR, this paper proposes two improved selected mapping (SLM) methods without explicit side information (SI): Proposed ED-SLM and Proposed SLM. In the Proposed ED-SLM method, signals will be transmitted without side information which is scrambled by special initial phase sequences and at the receiver an Euclidean phase distance detection (EPD) method is used to detect the SI and finishes the demodulation. In the proposed SLM method, the signals are transformed by Hadamard matrix to reduce PAPR. Then the row vectors of Hadamard matrix are used as phase sequences and superimposed on the data signals. The theory and simulation results show that the two improved SLM methods perform better in PAPR and BER reduction than the conventional SLM method in the OFDM–ROF transmission systems.