Using Unclaimed Sub-Carriers in Opportunistic OFDMA Systems

In this paper, we consider the unclaimed sub-carriers that no user feeds back in an opportunistic OFDMA system with a per sub-carrier power constraint. Unclaimed sub- carriers appear in OFDMA systems with reduced feedback, where the users concentrate the feedback on the sub-carriers with good channel quality. Here we propose and evaluate two ways to use these sub-carriers to improve the system performance. One approach is to transmit pilots symbols on the unclaimed sub- carriers. A second approach is to schedule users based on their feedback about adjacent sub-carriers. Simulation results show that for low to moderate channel RMS delay spread, it is more advantageous to transmit data on unclaimed sub-carriers, even at a low rate, than to use them for additional pilot symbols. For high delay spreads however, transmitting pilots on the unclaimed sub-carriers gives higher system throughput.