Performance estimation for OFDMA wireless system operating in a selective fading channel with partial interference

This paper discusses the problem of estimating the performance of an OFDMA receiver operating in a selective channel, prone to interference, wherein only a set of the OFDM sub-carriers is allocated to a user. Planning and deployment of an OFDMA system requires estimation of system performance in various signal to noise and interference (SINR) conditions. The problem is not trivial as both signal and interference undergo selective fading, and that the signal and interference have partially overlapping spectra. The effect of interference is a function of both its strength and its structure, namely how many of the sub-carriers are affected by it. In this paper we analyze the problem using various link to system mapping techniques. It is shown, by analysis and simulation, that the interference structure has an effect on the effective SINR, however it is small, in Rayleigh fading channels.