Performance of variable-power adaptive modulation with space-time block coding and imperfect channel state information over Rician fading channels

The performance analysis of a space-time block coded multiple input multiple output system with variable-power (VP) adaptive modulation (AM) over Rician fading channels for imperfect channel state information is presented. The optimum switching thresholds for attaining maximum spectrum efficiency (SE) subject to a target bit error rate (BER) and an average power constraint are derived. In the derivation, a very tight BER expression of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is used to develop a new power adaptation scheme that can fulfil the target BER even at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and achieve higher SE than the scheme using the BER upper bound commonly adopted in the literature. The existence and uniqueness of the Lagrange multiplier used in the constrained optimisation are investigated. It is shown that the Lagrange multiplier is unique when it exists. By using the switching thresholds, the authors obtain closed-form expressions of SE and average BER of the system. Computer simulation shows that the theoretical analysis is in good agreement with simulation. The results show that the proposed VP-AM scheme provides better SE than the constant-power counterparts and the VP-AM scheme using the commonly used BER bound. © 2012 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.