Symbol-level adaptive modulation for coded OFDM on block fading channels

It has recently been recognized by many researchers that adaptive modulation is most effective when the channel diversity order is small. In this letter, we propose a simple adaptive modulation scheme for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems on channels that provide a small order of diversity. The proposed adaptation algorithm is based on a novel and very simple analytical formula we derive for the performance of BICM on block fading channels. Simulation results show that the derived analytical formula is very tight when the targeted bit error probability is small. OFDM systems on indoor channels provide small orders of diversity and form an ideal scenario for adaptation. In order to keep system complexity and feedback requirements at a minimum, we will consider symbol-level adaptive modulation wherein all the subcarriers in an OFDM symbol use the same modulation.