Variable Bit Allocation For FH-CDMA Wireless

Communication Systems1

Charles C. Wang2 Gregory J. Pottie

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Electrical Engineering Department
Mail Stop 238-343 University of California, Los Angeles
4800 Oak Grove Avenue 405 Hilgard Avenue
Pasadena, California 91101-8099 Los Angeles, CA 90024

Abstract

In the wireless indoor environment, the channel may vary slowly as users and the interferers may

move at slow speeds. A frequency hopped CDMA (FH-CDMA) system can adapt to the different

interference levels in hopping patterns and assign the slots different bit rates to increase the system

capacity. We show that the maximum throughput bit rate/channel assignment problem is NP-hard.

Several practical ad hoc bit allocation algorithms are designed based on the insights derived from

exhaustive searches. The algorithms that achieve the most system capacity perform interference

avoidance. Users concentrate their throughput in a small fraction of the slots with low interference

by transmitting large signal constellations, while avoiding the channels with large interference.

Simulations show that the flexibility of users to adjust their bit rates to the interference

environment can significantly increases the system capacity.

1. This work is funded by Motorola Inc., under the terms of a university partnerships in research
grant.
2. Corresponding author.

1
1 Introduction
With limited spectrum and increasing demand for services, the next generation of wireless

communication systems need to utilize bandwidth more efficiently to support more users. Slow

frequency hopped code-division multiple access (FH-CDMA) is proposed as it is capable of

achieving high system capacity [1][2][3]. A slow hopped CDMA system divides the available

spectrum and time into non-overlapped frequency bins and time slots. A user transmits in different

frequency bins at different time slots, each containing several symbols. The sequence of time-

frequency slots that a user transmits is called a hopping pattern. In this paper, we assume the

hopping patterns of all users are periodic with the same period.

Like most of the high capacity wireless systems where the available bandwidth is limited,

an FH-CDMA system is “interference limited.” The transmitted power of all but the desired signal

is seen as interference by the receivers. Channel assignment strategies that reduce the interference

each user generates can directly increase the number of users that can communicate

simultaneously. In an indoor wireless FH-CDMA system, the channels vary slowly as users and

interferers move at low speeds. The system can take advantage of the different interference levels

in a hopping pattern and assign the slots different bit rates to minimize the interference. Assuming

all users desire the same data rate, our goal is to design bit allocation algorithms that can provide

services to the most users.

Rayleigh fading is not included in the simulations presented in this paper since it has

already been shown that systems with Rayleigh fading can obtain capacities close to systems

operating in additive white Gaussian channels [4], particularly when diversity techniques are

employed. In addition, the use of adaptive antenna arrays has been shown to reduce the effects of

fading greatly [5]. Here, we are more interested in showing the relative performances of the

different proposed bit allocation algorithms. The effects of fading are, however, important in the

implementation of an FH-CDMA system. We assume that the indoor wireless system with its high

symbol rate can track the slowly changing fading environment.

2
 We formulate the problem of bit allocation in an FH-CDMA system and present the

simulation results in the context of the reverse link (users transmitting to base stations) of a cellular

wireless system. The bit allocation algorithms can also be applied to the forward link of a cellular

system or to a peer-to-peer wireless system. All of the variable bit algorithms described in this

paper can be performed in a distributed fashion such that no centralized control is necessary. The

simulation results presented here are for comparisons of different algorithms and are meant to be

upperbounds for the simplified propagation models used. The results show that the interference

avoidance strategies and the flexibility of users to adjust their bit rates to the interference

environment can significantly increase the system capacity.

This paper is divided into five sections. In Section 2, we study the problem of bit allocation

in an indoor FH-CDMA wireless system. In Section 3, we prove that the problem of finding the

channel allocations and bit assignments that maximizes the system throughput is NP-hard. The

results from exhaustive searches of the bit allocations that maximize the system capacity are

presented. In Section 4, several bit allocation algorithms developed from the insights obtained from

the exhaustive searches are described. Simulation results of these algorithms are also presented.

We then offer some concluding remarks in Section 5.

2 Variable Bit Allocation

A frequency hopped CDMA (FH-CDMA) system can adapt to the different interference

levels in a hopping pattern and assign to the slots different bit rates to maximize the system

capacity. In an FH-CDMA system with variable bit allocation, the users can constantly monitor the

interference statistics in all of the slots in their hopping patterns. They may then decide to transmit

the larger signal constellations in the slots where there is little interference and transmit at a very

low data rate or send no data at all in the slots where interference is already high. This flexibility

allows the FH-CDMA system to achieve higher system capacity.

At first glance, an FH-CDMA wireless system with variable bit allocation is similar to a

3
multitone wireline communication system [6][7]. In both of these systems, the users first probe the

channels that are available to obtain channel statistics. There are many distributed channel probing

algorithms proposed for wireless communication systems[8][9][10]. A new user transmits at

several different power levels and monitors how the users sharing the same channels react to the

interference the new user generates. The maximum achievable signal-to-interference ratio (SIR),

the transmit power needed to achieve the desired SIR, and other statistics regarding power and

interference can be estimated. The users in the multitone wireline system and the FH-CDMA

system then allocate bits and power in the slots that have favorable channel conditions. In the

multitone wireline communication system, however, the system has an average power constraint

which limits the total transmit power of each link. In an FH-CDMA wireless system, there is

usually no such limitation, although low transmit power is desirable as it generally leads to low

interference. A maximum transmit power for every slot due to hardware limitations is more often

the case. In addition, an FH-CDMA wireless system is almost always a multi-user system where

the transmit power of one user interferes with the signals of the others. This leads to a coupling

between power allocation and interference levels which complicates the bit allocation decisions.

Thus, before we continue our discussion on finding the bit allocation algorithms that

maximize the capacity of an FH-CDMA system and their complexities, we briefly describe the

problem of power control. We assume there are B users in the system. In order to maintain the

desired error performance, different SIR’s are needed for different bit rates/signal constellation

sizes. For now, we assume that the users know the bit rates for the slots and the SIR needed. If user

i needs to obtain SIR greater than or equal to some SIR threshold γ ik to achieve the bit rate that

it desires in the k-th slot, the user’s transmit power needs to satisfy the following inequality:

k
P ik G ii
- ≥ γ ik
----------------------------------- (1)
∑ jk ij ik
k
P G + n
j≠i

where Pjk is the transmit power of the j-th user in the k-th slot, n ik is equal to the noise floor at the

4
 k
base station communicating with user i, and G ij is the link gain from user j to the base station

communicating with user i. The left hand side of (1) is simply the received power of user i divided
k
by the sum of all of the interference and noise at the base station. We assume that G ij and n ik are

independent of the frequency slots used and omit the superscript and subscript k in our notation.

We then multiply the denominator of (1) on both sides and collect all of the terms associated with

power to the left side of the inequality:

P ik G ii – γ ik ∑ P jk G ij ≥ γ ik n i (2)
j≠i

There are B such linear inequalities, one for each of the users sharing the same slot, and B

unknowns: P1k, P 2k, …, P Bk . Dividing Gii for each inequality, we can rewrite the B inequalities

in matrix form,

H ( γ k )P k ≥ N ( γ k ) (3)

γ k is a B × 1 vector where the i-th element is γ ik . γ k is the vector form of the B desired SIR’s

in the k-th slot. H ( γ k ) is a B × B matrix. The diagonal elements of H ( γ k ) are equal to one and

the off diagonal element (i, j) is equal to - γik Gij / Gii. Pk = [ pik ] is the B × 1 non-negative power

vector for γ k in slot k. N ( γ k ) is a B × 1 noise vector where i-th element is equal to γ ik ni /Gii.

If there exists a non-negative power vector solution to (3), the B users can all achieve the

SIR needed for their desired throughputs at this time-frequency slot. A set of linear equations needs

to be solved for each time-frequency slot. This set of B × B linear equations can be solved with

power control algorithms with centralized control [11]. Distributed power control algorithms

where no centralized control is needed can also be used [12][13]. These algorithms can find the

same power solution as the centralized power control algorithms. If there are S slots in the system,

the problem of variable bit allocation can be re-stated as finding the distributions of the SIR

5
thresholds, { γ i1, γ i2, …, γ iS } , hence bit allocations, for each user i such that the sum

of the bit rates of each user is equal to the desired total throughput and that there exist feasible non-

negative power solutions in all of the S slots with the desired SIR distribution.

In order to implement power control in a wireless system, the power amplifiers of the

transmitters may not always operated in the saturation region where high amplifier efficiency can

be obtained. However, with power control, a wireless system has been shown to be able to support

more simultaneous links and the average power consumption of the transmitter may actually be

lower than a system without power control as users with low path loss no longer needs to operate

the power amplifier at the in the saturation region [13].

3 Complexity of Optimal Bit Allocation Algorithms

We now turn our attention to finding the channel and bit allocations for a given set of users

that maximize the system capacity assuming all users must have the same throughput. We divide

this section into two different parts. We first present the proof that the complexity of finding the

optimal allocation is NP-hard. We then present the results of exhaustive searches which provide

heuristics for the bit allocation algorithms discussed in Section 4.

3.1 Maximum Throughput Channel and Bit Assignments

The optimization problem can be stated in the following compact matrix form:

B
maximize ∑ Xi (4)
i=1

S
Xi ≤ ∑ log2 ( 1 + γik ) (5)
k=1

Xi = Xj 1 ≤ i, j ≤ B

6
 H ( γ k )P k ≥ N ( γ k ) (6)

Pk ≥ 0 γk ≥ 0 1≤k≤S

We try to maximize the total throughput of the system with B users and S slots, where Xi is the

throughput of the i-th user. The logarithm function with base two in (5) is used to upper bound the

achievable bit rate as a function of the desired SIR of γ ik [14]. All users have the same

throughput. The relations in (6) are a set of non-linear power constraints described in (3).

If the number of slots is greater than or equal to the number of users ( B ≤ S ), the throughput

of each user is infinite since we do not impose a maximum power constraint. The infinite

throughput is achieved by assigning each user to a different slot. Since there is no interference, the

maximum achievable SIR is unbounded. If there is only one slot ( S = 1 ) , the maximum

achievable SIR for these B users is equal to the reciprocal of the largest eigenvalue of a B × B

matrix F. F is closely related to the matrix H ( γ 1 ) and has diagonal elements equal to zero and the

off diagonal element (i, j) equal to Gij / Gii [11].

We will now show that the problem of finding the optimal bit allocation is NP-hard for

B > S . Omitting the superscript k in (1) to simplify the notation, each user requires a different

desired SIR, γi, such that the inequality

P i G ii
- ≥ γi
------------------------------
∑ P j G ij + n i
j≠i

holds for 1 ≤ i ≤ B .

Multiplying the denominator on both side and dividing both side by Gii, we have

γ i ∑ P j Z ij – P i + γ i ñ i ≤ 0 (7)
j≠i

where Zij is equal to Gij / Gii and ñ i is equal to ni / Gii. Gii is path loss and is always greater than

7
zero. In the above equation, the transmit power, Pj, and desired SIR, γi, are the unknowns. The

equation is thus a quadratic equation of the variables Pj, 1 ≤ j ≤ B , and γi. We now put the

variables involved in the quadratic terms γ i × Pj in vector notation. Let

x = [ P 1, P 2, …, Pi – 1, Pi + 1, …, P B, γ i ] T

We then put the sum of the quadratic terms γ i ∑ P j Z ij in matrix notation as x T Ax . A can be
j≠i
expressed as

Z i1
0 0 … 0 ------ -
2
Z i2
0 0 … 0 ------ -
2
. . . . .
Z iB
0 0 … 0 -------
2
Z i1 Z i2 Z iB
------- ------- … ------- 0
2 2 2

In other words, A is a symmetric B × B matrix with all elements in the first ( B – 1 ) rows and

( B – 1 ) columns equal to zero. The j-th entry for the B-th row or column is equal to Zij / 2 for

1 ≤ j < i and Zi(j +1) / 2 for i ≤ j < B . AB × B = 0 .

To show that the problem is NP-hard, we need to show that the feasible region is non-

convex or equivalently, matrix A is not positive semi-definite [15]. The eigenvalues of the matrix

∑ ( Zij ⁄ 2 )
2
A can be solved easily and they are ( B – 2 ) zeros and ± . With negative
j≠i

eigenvalues, matrix A is not positive semi-definite. This, along with the other ( B – 1 ) non-convex

feasible regions for different values of i in the inequality , makes the optimization problem NP-

hard.

8
3.2 Exhaustive Searches

Since the optimization problem (4) is NP-hard, exhaustive searches are needed to find the

optimum bit allocation. Searches were performed for the reverse link of an indoor cellular system.

The cells are hexagonal in shape with users uniformly distributed in the coverage area. We assume

propagation loss can be modeled by the third power attenuation model. Shadowing, which is

caused by signals being blocked by objects or travelling through a room with the wave guide effect,

can be modeled by a lognormal distribution with standard deviation of 10.0 dB [16].

Quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM) is used. The minimum constellation size is

BPSK and requires an SIR of 10 dB to maintain good error performance. We use the approximation

that an additional 3 dB is needed for every additional bit of information to be carried by a symbol.

Let X denote the throughput of every user. If there are B users sharing S slots and the exhaustive

search starts with one bit of throughput for all users (X=1), the search tries all possible bit

allocations in these S slots for the total X bits for each user and all possible combinations of bit

allocations among the B users. The exhaustive search does not stop until a feasible power vector

for every slot is found such that every user can maintain X bits of throughput. We then increase the

system throughput by allocating X+1 bits to all users and search for feasible power vectors again.

This process is repeated until no more feasible power vectors can be found for the desired

throughput. There are no maximum SIR or maximum power constraints.

Unfortunately, the number of bit allocations that need to be searched is prohibitively large

for a system with even a moderate number of slots and/or users. The number of allocations is

(X + S – 1) B (X + S – 1)
closely upper bounded by [ C X ] where C X is the combination of selecting X

items out of (X+S-1).

Table 1 shows the results of the exhaustive searches for systems with three to five users

sharing two slots and a system with four users sharing three slots. One column tabulates the

maximum throughput per slot for a bit allocation algorithm that assigns the same number of bits in

9
every slot for every user. This is computed using the single channel eigenvalue techniques

described in [11]. The other column lists the results from the exhaustive searches.

Table 1: Results of exhaustive searches for the maximum average bit allocation per slot.

Equal Throughput Exhaustive Searches Difference

[bits] [bits] [%]

B = 3, S=2 1.4881 3.1726 113.1
B = 4, S=2 0.5833 2.0722 255.3
B = 5, S=2 0.1915 1.4556 660.1
B = 4, S=3 0.5895 2.6314 346.4

Table 1 shows that the equal throughput algorithm does not find the best allocation

possible. As the number of the users increases, the difference in throughputs between the equal

throughput algorithm and the exhaustive searches increases. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the

maximum achievable bits for a system with four users and three slots. The equal throughput

algorithm is not able to allocate throughput to the users if the users are close to each other in a large

fraction of the cases. The distribution decreases rapidly as the maximum achievable throughput

increases. The distribution from the results of exhaustive searches concentrates around the average

maximum throughput and tapers off as the number of bits increases and decreases at about the same

rate. These characteristics are also observed for the systems with a different number of users and
slots tabulated in Table 1.

10
 Solid -- Exhaustive search
Dotted -- Equal throughput

Distribution

Throughput per pattern [bits]

Figure 1 Distribution of total throughput for four users and three slots.

From Table 1, for systems with four users, the exhaustive searches show that the average

maximum achievable throughput per slot increases if the number of slots is increased from two to

three for a system with four users. On the other hand, the throughput stays the same for the equal

throughput system as the maximum throughput per slot is independent of the number of available

slots. The increase in throughput per slot may seem similar to information theory in source coding

which states that as the number of dimensions (slots in this case) increases, the average amount of

information that can be represented by a symbol per dimension also increases. Figure 2, however,
is more indicative of why the system throughput is much higher from exhaustive searches as the

number of slots increases. Figure 2 shows that the normalized bit distributions among the S slots

from the maximum throughput found by the exhaustive searches. It is normalized to the total

maximum throughput of the S slots for each sample. Figure 2 also shows that the maximum

throughput is usually achieved by concentrating the throughput of each user in one slot and

transmitting no power in the rest. This can be viewed as a form of interference avoidance. The users

transmit in the slots with low interference. They, on the average, do not generate too much

interference to the system. The system throughput increases. In the variable bit allocation system,

11
users that are close to each other achieve most of their throughput from different slots. They are

decoupled by avoiding transmitting in the same slots. The users arrange themselves so that they

only share the transmit slots with whom they have very low mutual link gains. As the number of

slots increases, the users have more freedom to avoid each other. The throughput thus increases.

When the number of slots becomes as large as the number of users (B=S), the maximum throughput

is infinite. This is achieved again by assigning each user to a different slot, thus avoiding any

interference.

Dotted line -- B = 4, S = 2
Solid line -- B = 4, S = 3
Distribution

Normalized Throughput [Bit]

Figure 2 Distribution of the bits allocated from the exhaustive searches.

4 Bit Allocation Algorithms

As discussed in the last section, finding the optimum bit and channel allocation requires

exhaustive searches which are impractical even for a moderate number of users and channels. We,

thus, propose several practical ad hoc bit allocation algorithms that do not require centralized

controls and compare their performances in dynamic simulations. The simulations are performed

for the reverse link of an indoor cellular system. The system has nineteen hexagonal cells which

12
form three concentric circles with the base station located in the center of each cell. QAM is used.

The minimum constellation is 4-QAM (QPSK) with desired SIR of 10 dB, and we assume 3 dB is

needed for every additional bit. BPSK is not chosen since bandwidth is a premium in the wireless

system and the required energy per bit for any bit error rate requirement is the same as 4-QAM

(QPSK). We impose a maximum constellation constraint, 64-QAM, due to the linearity limitation

of hardware. The users arrive at the system with nineteen-cell system with geographically uniform

distribution. The user arrival process is Poisson distributed and the users have i.i.d. exponential

service time. We assume that all users and surrounding objects are stationary so that channel

conditions do not change for the duration of each call. The FH-CDMA system has 24 frequency

bins. The period of all hopping patterns, N, is equal to 24 time slots and is conveniently defined as

a frame. There are twenty four hopping patterns available in every cell. Each slot has C symbols,

and we assume every user desires 48 × C bits/frame. Channel probing as described in [10][17] is

performed for every new user. It enables the system to estimate the maximum achievable

throughput in every slot and predict the transmit power needed for any throughput less than or

equal to the maximum for a new user. The system can also estimate the additional interference

induced by the transmit power of the new user at the base station the new user is associated with

as users already in the system adjust their transmit power to maintain satisfactory performance. All

these statistics is used by the bit allocation algorithm to determine how slots and bits are assigned

in hopping patterns.

In our simulations, dropping an already existing link is assumed to be a lot more

undesirable than denying newly arrived user service. No new links can be established unless the

new links can share the same time-frequency slots with the users already communicating in the

slots. We are, therefore, interested in finding the bit allocation algorithm that allows the most users

to communicate simultaneously in the system while meeting the system blocking probability,

Pblock, requirement. When a new user is arrived at the system, it first determines the base station

to which it has the smallest path loss and associates itself with the cell covered by the base station.

13
The new user then probes all the unused hopping pattern in the cell to see if a hopping pattern can

be found such that it can meet its throughput requirement without disruption of existing links. If

the new user cannot share any of the unused hopping patterns with users already in the system or

if all of the hopping patterns associated with the cell are already assigned, the newly arrived user

is blocked and exits the system without attempting to establish links again.

After a newly arrived user performs channel probing of all unused hopping patterns, the

channel and bit allocation algorithm then determines how to assign the new user a hopping pattern.

We compare six different heuristic bit allocation algorithms:

1. minimizing the total transmit power in the hopping pattern

2. minimizing the maximum transmit power in the hopping pattern in a slot

3. minimizing the total interference induced in the hopping pattern

4. minimizing the maximum of the interference induced in the hopping pattern

5. minimizing the total number of slots used in the hopping pattern

6. reverse water-filling of SIR

Algorithms 1 and 2 are both transmit power based. These two algorithms seek to minimize the

interference created by the newly arrived users by minimizing their total transmit power and the

maximum transmit power in any slot of a hopping pattern. Since the smaller constellations require

less energy per bit to meet the same bit-error-rate requirements, users in systems implementing

these two algorithms are more likely to use the smallest constellations. Algorithms 3 and 4 are

interference based. As a new user arrives at the system, the existing users need to increase their

transmit power to maintain their desired SIR. Algorithms 3 and 4 seek to minimize the additional

interference all the existing users need to transmit to maintain their current slot and bit assignment

in their hopping patterns. Algorithm 5 performs interference avoidance by limiting the number of

slots used. After probing all of the unused hopping patterns in the cell, the newly arrived user is

assigned the hopping pattern where it will transmit in the fewest slots in a frame. The new user does

14
so usually by transmitting the largest constellations which is only possible when there are no

interferers nearby. Algorithm 5 is designed to give the users that arrive later more freedom to

perform interference avoidance. Algorithm 6 is based on reverse water-filling of SIR which has

been shown to be the optimum algorithm in the single-user discrete multitone (DMT) system where

the noise level is fixed at high SIR [7]. Reverse water-filling of SIR can be best described by

turning Figure 3, which shows the maximum achievable SIR for all available slots, upside-down.

A new user first determines the maximum achievable SIR, γmax, in each slot via channel probing.

SIR is then “poured” into these slots with uneven “depth” until the desired throughput is achieved

with SIR of γ’. Algorithm 6 is, however, different from the reverse water-filling algorithm of the a

DMT system as the interference level changes as more SIR is poured into the slots.
γmax

γ’

Frequency slots
Figure 3 Reverse water-filling of SIR for a multislot system.

We present the simulation results for indoor FH-CDMA wireless systems group-

coincidence hopping (GC) patterns. A new user shares every slot in its hopping pattern with one

group of users. The group of potential interferers is the same in every hop. Depending on how the

users in the system allocate their bit rates, a new user may not share every slot with all of the users

of the same hopping pattern. There is no intra-cell interference as the users do not share any slot

15
in their hopping patterns with the other users in the same cells.

Before presenting the simulation results, we define normalized offered load in units of

Erlangs as the average arrival rate divided by the total number of hopping patterns available in the

system which is equal to the number of base stations multiplied by the number of hopping patterns

available in each cell. It is used as a measure of system capacity. We assume that once a user is

admitted into the system, it keeps the bit assignment until the call is terminated. No users are

dropped due to the arrivals of new users. It is up to the new users to adjust their channel and bit

assignments to the different interference levels. Centralized power control is used for our

simulations to reduce simulation time.

Figure 4 shows the blocking probability as a function of the normalized offered load.

Algorithms 2 and 4 are not shown in Figure 4 as Algorithm 2 has the same Pblock curve as

Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 4 has the same Pblock curve as Algorithm 3. Figure 4 shows that the

transmit power-based Algorithms 1 and 2 have the lowest system capacity for any given system

Pblock requirement between 0.1% and 1% among six bit allocation algorithms. Algorithm 5, which

minimizes the number of slots a new user uses, achieves the highest capacity among the six

algorithms. The interference-based Algorithms 3 and 4 and the reverse water-filling of SIR,

Algorithm 6, all have similar system capacities and achieve capacity close to Algorithm 5. The

difference in system capacities for Algorithm 5 and Algorithm 1 for Pblock of 0.1% to 1% is

approximately 25%. Figure 4 also shows the Pblock curve of a system without variable bit

allocation. In this system, a user transmits 4-QAM in all of the twenty-four slots in its hopping

pattern. The system capacity of this system is 25% to 55% lower than a system with any of the six

bit allocation algorithms proposed for Pblock requirement of 1%.

16
 Pblock

Dashed line -- No bit allocation

Dotted line -- Alg 1, min total power
Solid line -- Alg 5, minimum slots
x -- Alg 3, min total interference
o -- Alg 6, reverse water-pouring

Normalized Offered Load [Erlang]

Figure 4 Bit allocation simulations for group-coincidence systems.

Figure 5 shows the distributions of the slots used by the six algorithms as a function of the

bits carried per symbol. Again, the distributions of Algorithms 2 and 4 are not shown as they are

very similar to those of Algorithms 1 and 3 respectively. No slots carry just one bit of information

as BPSK is not allowed. Algorithm 5, which achieves the highest system capacity, assigns the

maximum constellation of 64-QAM to most slots among the six algorithms and at the same time

leave most slots unused. It minimizes the number of slots a new user transmits and concentrates its

throughput and power in these slots. The new user, at the same time, avoids the slots with large

interference when possible. These are the characteristics associated with the maximum throughput

bit assignments found by the exhaustive searches in Section 3.2. Minimizing the slots in which a

user allocates power also gives future arrivals more flexibility to perform interference avoidance.

17
 Solid -- Alg 5, minimum slots
Dashed -- Alg 1, min in total power
o -- Alg 3, min total interference
+ -- Alg 6, reverse SIR water-fill
Distribution

Normalized Throughput [Bit]

Figure 5 Distribution of the bits allocated from simulations.

The transmit power-based algorithms assign the smallest constellation, 4-QAM, to most of

the slots as it often requires the least power. There are usually no slots left unused. These

algorithms do not perform interference avoidance and are similar to the equal throughput algorithm

in Section 3.2. The constellations assigned by these two algorithms are very similar to the system

without variable bit allocation, but the additional flexibility that allows users to change bit

assignments enables systems with Algorithms 1 or 2 to achieve 25% higher system capacity as

shown in Figure 4 for Pblock of 0.1% to 1%. The interference-based algorithms, on the other hand,

assign large constellations to the slots that have no interference or have interferers that are far away.

In these slots, the new users can obtain the highest throughput without inducing much additional

interference. The bit distributions of these algorithms are very similar to Algorithm 5. The

interference-based algorithms better use the statistics derived from channel probing than the

power-based algorithms. Instead of passively minimizing the interference generated by the new

user as in Algorithms 1 and 2, Algorithms 3 and 4 estimate how the users already in the system

would react to the interference generated by the new user. Algorithm 6, which performs reverse

18
water-filling of SIR, also obtains the most throughput desired in very few slots. These slots usually

have very high achievable SIR and on the average, have no interferers or have interferers that have

very low mutual link gain with the new user. The bit distribution of Algorithm 6 also takes on the

general shape of Algorithm 5.

We now compare the system capacity of the variable bit FH-CDMA systems with an FH-

CDMA system deploying the interference avoidance strategy identical to that described for

Algorithm 5 by transmitting in M out of every N slots (N = 24), but without the capability to vary

the constellations among the slots used for communication [18]. The M/N system performs

channel probing and then assigns a fixed constellation in the M most favorable slots. The receivers

for this system is simplified as they only need to be able to demodulate one modulation. Power

control is still implemented. Without power control, the system throughput would be much lower.

We assume that the system operates in the same environment and that users have the same

throughput requirement of 48 × C bits/frame, where C is the number of symbols per slot. For

comparison, the M/N system transmits eight out of every twenty-four slots using 64-QAM, the

same largest constellation available for the variable bit allocation system, resulting in 48 × C bits/

frame. The results are shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 shows that the M/N system can achieve higher

system capacity for a given Pblock than a system transmitting QPSK in all twenty-four slots without

bit allocation through interference avoidance. It also shows that the system capacity of the variable
bit allocation system is 20%-25% better than that of the M/N= 8/23 system for Pblock of 0.1% to

1%. Even though both the M/N system and the bit allocation system use the largest constellation

whenever possible, the bit allocation system has the additional flexibility to allocate bits according

to the congestion condition in the hopping patterns. It can admit users that are unable to achieve

the fixed constellation, 64-QAM, in every slot used in the M/N = 8/23 system.

19
 No Bit Allocation
Pblock

Variable Bit Allocation

M/N = 8/24

Normalized Offered Load [Erlang]

Figure 6 Simulation results for variable bit allocation and M/N systems
with all users having the same throughput.

5 Conclusion
Finding the optimal bit allocation that maximizes the system throughput is an NP-hard

problem. In an FH-CDMA system where every user requires the same bit rate, we propose several

ad hoc algorithms that utilize the insights we have obtained from exhaustive searches. Interference

avoidance algorithms which ask the users to avoid transmitting in the slots with large interferers

nearby seems to be the best strategy. These bit allocation algorithms gives the system more

flexibility to adapt to the interference statistics, and result in the highest system capacity. Under

our simplified model, a system with variable bit allocation can achieve capacity more than 50%

higher than a system with users transmitting the same bit rate in every slot of the hopping patterns

for Pblock of 1%.

In our simulations, we assume that power control and bit allocation can be performed

instantly. We have not taken into account of the speed of convergence of various adaptive

algorithms. The results presented here are meant to serve as an upperbound on how the various

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proposed bit allocation algorithms can improve the capacity. We expect that high speed indoor

systems can come close to these bounds, while quite different approaches will be required to cope

with a combination of high mobility and low bit rate. The key factor is the ability to accurately

estimate the channel and provide the communication partner with timely observations. With rapid

channel and interference dynamics relative to the symbol rate, at some point interference averaging

would be more attractive than interference avoidance. Development of an access strategy which

effectively manages this transition would be an interesting research project.

Appendix

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