On the error vector magnitude as a performance metric and comparative analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we present the error vector magnitude (EVM) as a figure of merit for assessing the quality of digitally modulated telecommunication signals. We define EVM for a common industry standard and derive the relationships among EVM, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER). We also compare among the different performance metrics and show that EVM can be equivalently useful as signal to noise ratio and bit error rate. A few simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of EVM based on these relationships.