Prediction Model for Turbo-Coded OFDMA-Systems Employing Rate Matching and HARQ

The availability of an accurate and simple performance prediction model for OFDMA-based mobile broadband communications systems is critical for many practical applications such as link adaptation and link-to-system mapping for system-level performance evaluations. Previous work on performance prediction models has dealt with predefined and fixed modulation and coding rate schemes. However, recent advances in forward error correction coding techniques in present and next generation mobile broadband communications standards render the existing prediction schemes inappropriate due to the variable coding rate property inherent to the design and operation of such systems; the variable coding rate is due to the rate matching and HARQ processes employed in modern wireless communications standards. The conventional prediction models are inappropriate due to the complexity required for calculating the prediction model parameters in the case of variable coding rates. In this paper, we present a novel model for the performance prediction of turbo-coded OFDMA-based systems employing variable coding rate. The proposed model can be used as a link-to-system mapping, a.k.a. physical layer (PHY) abstraction, in system level simulations of next generation mobile broadband standards such as IEEE 802.16m and LTE-Advanced.