Coding performance of HARQ with BICM—Part I: Unified performance analysis

We develop a general model based on random coding bounds to explain and predict the coding performance of various type-I and type-II hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) schemes based on the bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) in 3GPP HSPA. We explore how the intrinsic properties of BICM interact with various transmitter-side (e.g., whether to use the same bit mapping for retransmission) and receiver-side HARQ options (e.g., bit vs. symbol level processing and Log-MAP vs. Log-Max demodulation). The accuracy of the theoretical model is verified with extensive link simulations. The performance model can be incorporated into radio resource management algorithms for efficient wireless network operations. In a companion paper, the unified analytical model is further applied to investigate performance of LTE HARQ operations, which consist of varying mixture of type-I/II and bit remapping HARQ features.