Impact of channel estimation error on performance of adaptive MIMO systems

Adaptive modulation scheme has been widely used in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to enhance the spectral efficiency while maintaining the bit-error-rate (BER) under a target level. In this work, we investigate the performance of adaptive modulation in the presence of imperfect channel estimation and the impact of estimation noise on the spectral efficiency. The closed-form expressions for the average spectral efficiency are derived. Two MIMO schemes are considered, i.e., orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC) and spatial multiplexing with zero-forcing receiver (SM-ZF), and a low complexity method to enable the transmitter to switch between OSTBC and SM-ZF is utilized to achieve higher spectral efficiency than adaptive OSTBC and adaptive SM-ZF.