Fading Channel Prediction for Mobile Radio Adaptive Transmission Systems

Adaptive transmission methods can potentially aid the achievement of high data rates required for mobile radio multimedia services. To realize this potential, the transmitter needs accurate channel state information (CSI) for the upcoming transmission frame. In most mobile radio systems, the CSI is estimated at the receiver and fed back to the transmitter. However, unless the mobile speed is very low, the estimated CSI cannot be used directly to select the parameters of adaptive transmission systems, since it quickly becomes outdated due to the rapid channel variation caused by multipath fading. To enable adaptive transmission for mobile radio systems, prediction of future fading channel samples is required. Several fundamental issues arise in the design and testing of fading prediction algorithms for adaptive transmission systems. These include complexity, robustness, choice of an appropriate channel model for algorithm validation, channel estimation and noise reduction required for reliable prediction, and design and analysis of adaptive transmission methods aided by fading prediction algorithms. We use these criteria in the review of recent advances in the area of fading channel prediction. We also demonstrate that reliable fading prediction makes adaptive transmission feasible in diverse wireless communication systems.