A Statistical Inter-Cell Interference Model for Uplink Cellular OFDMA Networks Under Log-Normal Shadowing and Rayleigh Fading

The performance of uplink cellular OFDMA networks transmitting multiple QAM symbols per hop is evaluated under log-normal shadowing and Rayleigh fading without resorting to a Gaussian approximation of the inter-cell interference. The derived interference statistic is observed to deviate significantly from the Gaussian distribution which may be exploited to dramatically enhance the network performance. It is also observed that the network performance is highly dependent on the number and the geometry of the QAM symbols transmitted within a hop, especially for large code frame lengths.