Optimal Selection Criterion of the Modulation and Coding Scheme in Consideration of the Signaling Overhead of Mobile WiMAX Systems

Abstract

An optimal selection criterion of the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for maximizing spectral efficiency is proposed in consideration of the signaling overhead of mobile WiMAX systems with a hybrid automatic repeat request mechanism. A base station informs users about the resource assignments in each frame, and the allocation process generates a substantial signaling overhead, which influences the system throughput. However, the signaling overhead was ignored in previous MCS selection criteria. In this letter, the spectral efficiency is estimated on the basis of the signaling overhead and the number of transmissions. The performance of the proposed MCS selection criterion is evaluated in terms of the spectral efficiency in the mobile WiMAX system, with and without persistent allocation.