Throughput Analysis for Multiuser OFDM with Adaptive Modulation

Yu-Kuan Lin
Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
yklin@stanford.edu

Introduction

Recently, there has been much research on OFDM and its applications for wireless
communications, due its ability to combat intersymbol interference (ISI) and frequency-selective fading
channels. For the single-user case, the water-pouring algorithm has been shown as the optimal scheme for
maximizing capacity [1]. However, the multiuser case is more complicated because one set of undesirable
subcarriers for one particular node may be highly optimal for another node, due to the rapidly varying
space-time fading channel. Adaptive modulation has been proposed to enhance the performance of
OFDM, by dynamically allocating resources condition upon the instantaneous channel conditions.
Several different approaches exist for adaptive OFDM modulation. One approach is to use
adaptive signal constellation to optimize performance based on allocated subcarriers’ fading
characteristics. By adapting the signal constellation, data rate can be traded off against BER performance.
In [2], Ye et al., demonstrated usage of adaptive M-QAM for throughput optimization subject to a desired
BER constraint under different MAC schemes, including pure-ALOHA and non-persistent CSMA.
A different approach is to adaptively assign subcarriers to nodes and determine the number of bits
and transmission power based on a fixed signal constellation and instantaneous channel characteristics.
This is also referred to as “bit loading,” and can be viewed as a dynamic frequency division multiple
access scheme. The key issue in this scheme is fairly distribute the subcarriers amongst all nodes as the
channel is continuously changing, subject to performance constraints such as data rate, BER, and power.
In [3], Wong et al., compared the SNR performance of their greedy algorithm with OFDM-FDMA and
OFDM-TDMA. A similar bit loading algorithm was used by Armada in [4] to study its capacity and SNR
performance in CSMA networks.

Proposal

In my research, I would like review current research in adaptive bit loading to understand key
performance issues due to multiuser environments. I intend to analyze the proposed solutions and discuss
them. Furthermore, I would like to extend the study by simulating the throughput performance of adaptive
bit loading, thus providing a direct comparison to adaptive signal constellation using the same
benchmark. This comparison will hopefully provide a meaningful performance comparison of these two
schemes, and yield insights into the possibility of combining both to achieve yet more superior
performance.

References

[1] R. G. Gallager, Information theory and reliable Communication, Wiley, New York, NY 1968

[2] Z. Ye, G. J. Saulnier, K. S. Vastola, and M. J. Medley, “Throughput Analysis for a Packet Radio
Network Using Rate Adaptive OFDM Signaling,” IEEE International Conference on Communications,
Vol. 1, pp. 516-522, Jun. 1999
[3] C. Y. Wong, R. S. Cheng, K. B. Letaief, and R. D. Murch, “Multiuser OFDM with Adaptive
Subcarrier, Bit, and Power Allocation,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 17, pp.
1747-1757, Oct. 1999

[4] A. G. Armada, “CSMA Multiuser Bit Loading Algorithm for Multicarrier Wireless Local Area
Networks,” Proc. IEEE Vehicular Technology Conf., Vol. 2, pp. 1099-1103, Spring 2001