Optimal power and subcarriers allocation in downlink OFDMA system with imperfect channel knowledge

Most of existing work on resource allocation in TDMA and OFDMA systems assumes the availability of perfect channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter, which is rarely possible due to feedback delay and channel estimation error. In this paper, we study the effect of feedback delay and channel estimation error on margin adaptive resource allocation in a downlink OFDMA system. By using convex optimization framework, we find an optimal solution to the problem. First, we study the individual effect of feedback delay and channel estimation error on resource allocation by considering them exclusively. Then, we consider the simultaneous presence of feedback delay and channel estimation error and study their combined effect on resource allocation. We derive an explicit close form expression for the users’ transmit power and propose an algorithm for power and subcarriers allocation for each of these three scenarios. The algorithms have polynomial complexities and solve the problem with zero optimality gaps. Simulation results show that the system performance is very sensitive to feedback delay and is affected significantly by imperfect channel estimation. Our proposed algorithms highly improve the system performance in the availability of only imperfect CSI at the transmitter.