Effects of imperfect subcarrier SNR information on adaptive bit loading algorithms for multicarrier systems

In this paper, we evaluate and compare the robustness of several adaptive bit loading algorithms for multicarrier transmission systems, when imperfect subcarrier signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) information is used. In particular, we investigate the impact of the uncertainty of data-aided channel estimation techniques on system performance. We also examine an implementation issue associated with adaptive bit loading algorithms that use metrics related to the SNR. Although such metrics can be derived via closed form expressions, look-up tables are used instead to reduce system complexity, resulting in the SNR values being quantized. Thus, we examine the effects of SNR quantization on system performance. Finally, we present a technique for choosing SNR values in a fixed length look-up table in order to minimize quantization error.