Joint Power Allocation and Bit-Loading for Multicarrier Systems with Discrete Modulation

Abstract

In this paper, we propose two algorithms for joint power allocation and bit-loading in multicarrier systems using discrete modulations. The objective is to maximize the data rate under the constraint of a suitable Bit Error Rate per subcarrier. The first algorithm is based on the Lagrangian Relaxation of the discrete optimization problem in order to find an initial solution. A discrete solution is found by bit truncation followed by an iterative modulation adjustment. The second algorithm is based on Discrete Coordinate Ascent framework with iterative modulation increment of one selected subcarrier at each iteration. A simple cost function related to the power increment per bit is used for subcarrier selection. A sub-optimal low complexity Discrete Coordinate Ascent algorithm is proposed that overcome the limitations of the Hughes-Hartogs algorithm. The Lagrangian Relaxation algorithm provides a suboptimal solution for non-coded system using M-QAM modulations, whereas the low complexity Discrete Coordinate Ascent algorithm provides a near optimal solution for coded as well as for non-coded system using an arbitrary modulation set. Numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithms in comparison with traditional methods.