IEICE Transactions on Communications
Online ISSN : 1745-1345
Print ISSN : 0916-8516
Special Section on Radio Access Techniques for 3G Evolution
Experimental Evaluation of Time Diversity Effect in Hybrid ARQ Considering Space and Path Diversity for Downlink OFDM-Based Broadband Radio Access
Nobuhiko MIKIHiroyuki ATARASHIKenichi HIGUCHIMamoru SAWAHASHIMasao NAKAGAWA
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2009 Volume E92.B Issue 5 Pages 1516-1526

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Abstract

This paper presents experimental evaluations of the effect of time diversity obtained by hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) with soft combining in space and path diversity schemes on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based packet radio access in a downlink broadband multipath fading channel. The effect of HARQ is analyzed through laboratory experiments employing fading simulators and field experiments conducted in downtown Yokosuka near Tokyo. After confirming the validity of experimental results based on numerical analysis of the time diversity gain in HARQ, we show by the experimental results that, for a fixed modulation and channel coding scheme (MCS), time diversity obtained by HARQ is effective in reducing the required received signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio (SINR) according to an increase in the number of transmissions, K, up to 10, even when the diversity effects are obtained through two-branch antenna diversity reception and path diversity using a number of multipaths greater than 12 observed in a real fading channel. Meanwhile, in combined use with the adaptive modulation and channel coding (AMC) scheme associated with space and path diversity, we clarify that the gain obtained by time diversity is almost saturated at the maximum number of transmissions in HARQ, K' = 4 in Chase combining and K' = 2 in Incremental redundancy, since the improvement in the residual packet error rate (PER) obtained through time diversity becomes small owing to the low PER in the initial packet transmission arising from appropriately selecting the optimum MCS in AMC. However, the experimental results elucidate that the time diversity in HARQ with soft combining associated with antenna diversity reception is effective in improving the throughput even in a broadband multipath channel with sufficient path diversity.

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© 2009 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers
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