Abstract
Single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) is a promising alternative to orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) for uplink wireless communications in frequency-selective fading environments. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the power amplifier (PA) on the performance of the SC-FDMA system. The suitable saturation level thresholds of the PA that can be utilized in the SC-FDMA system are studied and determined through simulations for different modulation formats. Simulation results show that the saturation level of the PA has a significant effect on the bit error rate (BER) performance of the SC-FDMA system, especially with high order modulation formats.