Performance of Fast AMC in E-UTRAN Uplink

Evolved (E-) UTRA is currently being standardized as a long term evolution (LTE) of the 3GPP radio access technology. One of the goals of E-UTRA is to achieve 2-4 times the spectral efficiency and user throughputs compared to HSUPA/HSDPA. Support for fast link adaptation based on adaptive modulation & coding (AMC) is one of the features being introduced in the E-UTRA specifications to enhance the uplink spectral efficiency. This paper focuses on the performance evaluation of fast AMC in E-UTRA uplink compared to link adaptation schemes that only slowly adapt to the varying channel and interference conditions. It is shown that despite measurement errors and the high variability of uplink inter-cell interference, fast AMC can boost the capacity of E-UTRA uplink by approximately 20% to 25%.