System and method for post filtering peak power reduction in multi-carrier communications systems

A peak reduction unit adapted for use in a multi-carrier communication system, the peak reduction unit comprising:

• a first signal path receiving a multi-carrier input signal band limited in plural bands and including a delay circuit for delaying the input signal;
• a second parallel signal path receiving said band limited multi-carrier input signal and including a peak reduction calculation circuit for calculating a peak reduction correction, a plurality of gain circuits receiving the peak reduction correction and providing plural gain adjusted peak reduction corrections, and a plurality of filters providing a filtering operation on the respective plural peak reduction corrections and providing plural filtered peak reduction corrections;
• and
• a combiner combining the plural filtered peak reduction corrections and the delayed multi-carrier input signal and providing a peak adjusted multi-carrier output signal.

A method for signal peak reduction in a multi-carrier communication system, comprising:

• receiving as an input a multi-carrier communication signal band limited in plural bands;
• providing a peak reduction correction signal based on the amount the multi-carrier communication signal exceeds a threshold signal peak limit value;
• splitting the peak reduction correction signal into plural peak reduction correction signals on parallel signal paths;
• filtering the plural peak reduction correction signals to limit the bandwidth of the peak reduction correction signals;
• and
• combining the filtered peak reduction correction signals and the input multi-carrier communication signal to provide a peak reduced output communication signal band limited in a plurality of separate bands.