Frequency Domain Link Adaptation for OFDM-based Cellular Packet Data

In order to be competitive with emerging mobile systems and to satisfy the ever growing request for higher data rates, the 3G consortium, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), is currently developing concepts for a long term evolution (LTE) of the 3G standard. The LTE-concept at Ericsson is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) as downlink air interface. OFDM enables the use of frequency domain link adaptation to select the most appropriate transmission parameters according to current channel conditions, in order to maximize the throughput and maintain the delay at a desired level. The purpose of this thesis work is to study, implement and evaluate different link adaptation algorithms. The main focus is on modulation adaptation, where the differences in performance between time domain and frequency domain adaptation are investigated. The simulations made in this thesis are made with a simulator developed at Ericsson. Simulations show in general that the cell throughput is enhanced by an average of 3% when using frequency domain modulation adaptation. When using the implemented frequency domain power allocation algorithm, a gain of 23-36% in average is seen in the users 5th percentile throughput. It should be noted that the simulations use a realistic web traffic model, which makes the channel quality estimation (CQE) difficult. The CQE has great impact on the performance of frequency domain adaptation. Throughput improvements are expected when using an improved CQE or interference avoidance schemes. The gains with frequency domain adaptation shown in this thesis work may be too small to motivate the extra signalling overhead required. The complexity of the implemented frequency domain power allocation algorithm is also very high compared to the performance enhancement seen.