PAPR Reduction Theory and Method for OTFS Systems via Nonzero-Unitary Precoding

ZENG Junlong; JIANG Zhanjun; LIU Haoxiang; ZHANG Huawei; LI Cuiran

doi:10.11999/JEIT250888

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ZENG Junlong, JIANG Zhanjun, LIU Haoxiang, ZHANG Huawei, LI Cuiran. PAPR Reduction Theory and Method for OTFS Systems via Nonzero-Unitary Precoding[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250888

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ZENG Junlong, JIANG Zhanjun, LIU Haoxiang, ZHANG Huawei, LI Cuiran. PAPR Reduction Theory and Method for OTFS Systems via Nonzero-Unitary Precoding[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250888

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PAPR Reduction Theory and Method for OTFS Systems via Nonzero-Unitary Precoding

doi: 10.11999/JEIT250888 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT250888

School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China

Funds: The National Natural Science Foundation of China (62161016), Gansu Provincial Natural Science Foundation (26JRRA086)

Received Date: 2025-09-09
Accepted Date: 2026-03-03
Rev Recd Date: 2026-02-23

Available Online: 2026-03-15

Abstract

Abstract

Objective OTFS and its variants provide robust performance in high-mobility doubly selective channels, yet their inherently high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) limits power-amplifier efficiency and practical implementation. Recent observations reveal a theory–practice mismatch: some OTFS variants achieved by changing the orthogonal basis (e.g., DCT-based designs) can reduce PAPR while maintaining an OTFS-like bit error rate (BER), although the prevailing explanation mainly attributes reliability to constant-modulus unitary transforms and does not directly justify such non-constant-modulus cases. As a result, it remains unclear which unitary bases preserve the channel-hardening behavior that stabilizes effective gains and protects BER, and which unitary choices may degrade performance even though they are mathematically unitary. The objective of this paper is to close this gap by establishing a verifiable and more general condition that characterizes BER-robust unitary precoding, and by developing a waveform/precoder design approach that suppresses PAPR without sacrificing reliability for OTFS and typical OTFS-like variants. Methods A nonzero-unitary precoding based waveform design framework is established. An upper-bound characterization of the effective channel-gain fluctuation is derived, and it is shown that, when the precoder satisfies a nonzero and near-uniform energy-spreading condition, the variance of the effective channel coefficients decreases with the growth of the time–frequency grid, which indicates the emergence of a channel-hardening effect. Motivated by this result, the waveform design is formulated as a peak-power minimization problem over the unitary precoder, where the objective is to reduce the maximum instantaneous power while preserving the unitary structure required by the modulation framework. A CVX-based solver is employed to provide a performance reference benchmark for the formulated objective. For engineering implementation, an efficient algorithm is developed by the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), in which the original nonconvex design is decomposed into low-cost sub-updates together with a unitary projection step, enabling scalable computation. Results and Discussions Simulation results under representative doubly selective channels with high terminal speeds indicate that the proposed precoder design achieves noticeable PAPR suppression while maintaining the bit error rate (BER) close to that of conventional constant-modulus unitary precoding. In addition, the CVX-based benchmark is used to reveal the attainable performance region, and the ADMM-based implementation is shown to approach this reference with a favorable PAPR–BER trade-off. The computational advantage is also validated: compared with general-purpose convex optimization, the ADMM solver reduces the overall runtime/complexity by roughly three orders of magnitude for typical OTFS parameter settings, which supports real-time or near-real-time deployment. The observed performance trends are consistent with the theoretical insight that near-uniform energy spreading stabilizes effective channel gains and prevents “spiky” basis vectors from degrading robustness. Furthermore, the framework is applicable to OTFS variants, since basis selection and waveform shaping can be equivalently interpreted as unitary-precoder design within the same optimization architecture. Conclusions A theoretical and algorithmic solution for PAPR suppression in OTFS systems is presented via nonzero-unitary precoding. Channel hardening is established under a nonzero and near-uniform energy-spreading condition, providing a principled justification for searching low-PAPR solutions beyond constant-modulus transforms. A peak-power minimization formulation is adopted to translate this insight into waveform optimization, and a CVX benchmark is provided to quantify the achievable performance reference. A low-complexity ADMM algorithm is then constructed to deliver scalable computation through simple sub-updates and unitary projection, while keeping BER performance essentially unchanged. The proposed approach offers a unified low-PAPR waveform design paradigm for OTFS and its variants, featuring theoretical generality, computational efficiency, and controllable performance under high-mobility doubly selective channels.
- OTFS,
- Peak-to-average power ratio,
- Unitary precoding,
- ADMM

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References(19)

References

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