Integrated rounding method for real number bit distribution over DMT systems

Most bit loading algorithms proposed in the literature originally distribute a non-integer number of bits to the subcarriers of a discrete multitone (DMT) system and then, employing an iterative algorithm they round these assigned numbers to integers. Introduced is the concept of ´the quality factors´ of the subcarriers and a new rounding algorithm is proposed based on them. Simulations comparing this proposal and the rounding proposed in the literature reveal that the proposed scheme results in power savings up to 11.1%, without affecting negatively the bit error rate.