Packet data transmission over mobile radio channels

Since in mobile radio Rayleigh fading poses the main threat to accurate data transmission, a mathematical model of the dynamics of Rayleigh fading is used to explore the optimum duration of data packets. The performance criterion is the rate of information transfer through the mobile radio channel. In addition to packet size, the information rate depends on: the speed of the mobile terminal, the channel bit rate, the size of the packet header, and the fade margin of the modulation and coding techniques. In particular, attention is focused on line rates of 16 kb/s and 256 kb/s (which are representative of the rates proposed for digital mobile radio systems in North America and Europe, respectively). At 16 kb/s, the optimum packet size is approximately 17 B (8.5-ms duration). At 256 kb/s, maximum throughput occurs when the packet contains about 48 B (1.5-ms duration). The precise optimum depends on vehicle speed, header size, and fade margin. The optimum packets are considerably shorter than the 125-B packets customarily used in terrestrial and satellite systems