Evaluation of the Impact of Higher Order Modulation and MIMO for LTE Downlink

Long Term Evolution (LTE) represents the standardization efforts by 3GPP for developing a new high data rate radio access technique for the mobile cellular communication systems. Long Term Evolution provides a smooth evolutionary for the existing 2nd and 3rd generation (2G and 3G) systems and is the next step towards the next generation known as 4th Generation (4G) of the cellular systems. With the improved spectrum efficiency, simplified architecture and the ability to reuse low frequency spectrum and the innovative radio interface, LTE is an evolution from the current packet and circuit switched networks to a simple all IP environments. The LTE physical layer provides an extremely efficient way of transporting both control information signaling and the data between eNodeB (enhanced base station) and the UE (mobile user equipment). The physical layer of LTE utilizes some new and much advanced techniques including OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) and MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output). The focus of this work is on performance analysis of LTE downlink physical layer, more specifically the impact of higher order modulation and spatial multiplexing with MIMO techniques using a simulation model developed in MATLAB. The results of this study show that the physical layer performance of the LTE downlink can be greatly enhanced in terms of throughput and BER with higher order modulation and MIMO techniques