Gains achieved by symbol-by-symbol rate adaptation on error-constrained data throughput over fading channels

Methods for symbol-by-symbol channel feedback and adaptation of symbol durations have been recently proposed. In this paper, we quantitatively analyze the gain in error-constrained data throughput due to such an extremely rapid adaptation of symbol durations to fast-time-varying channels. The results show that a symbol-by-symbol adaptation can achieve a throughput gain by orders of magnitude over a frame-by-frame adaptation.