Performance Evaluation of Adaptive MIMO-OFDM Systems with Limited Feedback Using Measurement Based Channel Models

Performance evaluation of enhanced link adaptation method for MIMO-OFDM systems with limited feedback using measurement based channels and a stochastic channel model is presented in this paper. In particular, impact of practical channel estimation and feedback errors on link performance is analyzed. An adaptive spatial and modulation scheme selection process is based on the effective signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (ESINR). Mutual information effective SINR mapping method is applied for calculating ESINR values due to its capability of accurate estimation of the error rate performance of large variety of MIMO channels. Numerical results show that simple adaptive systems that switch between diversity/multiplexing or beamforming/multiplexing schemes obtain relatively good performance in realistic 2 × 2 MIMO channels. It is also shown that the imperfect channel estimation and feedback errors can have significant impact on the link performance. Furthermore, it is noticed that using the stochastic channel model in performance simulations can give rather pessimistic results compared to true measurement data.