International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2012)

Capacity Enhancement of WiMAX System Using Adaptive

Modulation and Code Rate
Varsha Birla1, Prof. Rupesh Dubey2
ME Scholar, Specialization in Electronics and Communication, IESIPS Academy, Indore (M.P.) India
2
Head & Associate Professor (Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engg.) IESIPS Academy, Indore (M.P.) India

Abstract - This paper presents capacity enhancement of
WiMAX system using adaptive modulation and code rate in
Matlab. This paper focusing on the physical layer design that
is modulation (BPSK, QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM,
32QAM,64QAM are used in this work) and convolution
codes(CC) with ½, ⅔ codes. Here various used modulation
types will be implemented in a single Matlab function that can
be called with the appropriate coefficient. This work examines
the benefits and performance enhancement made possible by
of using adaptive modulation with convolution code ½, ¾ code
rate based on simulation results of bit error rate(BER) Vs
SNR and channel capacity Vs SNR under the AWGN channel.
Simulation results proved that the adaptive system
performance with convolution coding is better than other
modulation alone. Simulation result also show the flexibility of
the adaptive system to operate with different desired BER.
Index Terms – Adaptive modulation, AWGN, BER,
Convolution coding (CC), SNR, WiMAX.
I. INTRODUCTION
Future wireless networks such as 4G system will
support high data rate and multimedia services including
facsimile, video teleconferencing, file transfer by
consuming less bandwidth such as high-speed Internet
accesses [1].The IEEE WiMAX/802.16 is a promising
technology for broadband wireless metropolitan areas
networks (WMANs) as it can provide high throughput over
long distances and can support different qualities of
services [2].
The fundamental limitations of wireless
communication system are limited channel bandwidth, time
varying channel fading make it a difficult problem to
provide a high QoS. The traditional wireless
communication systems are designed to provide good
quality of services at the worst channel conditions. As the
result inefficient utilization of the full channel capacity [3].
One of the efficient techniques to overcome to this problem
is known as adaptive modulation and coding (AMC).
The idea behind to adaptive modulation is to
dynamically adapt and adjust the transmission parameters
such as modulation and coding scheme based on the
channel quality information notice by the receiver and fed
back to the transmitter so as to achieve the highest spectral
efficiency at all times[4].These techniques provide many
parameters including transmitted power level, symbol rate,
coding scheme, constellation size, or any combination of
these parameters can be vary according to the time varying
nature of wireless channel[5].
II. S YSTEM DESCRIPTION
In our system we investigated the behavior of adaptive
modulation technique of WiMAX system. Adaptive
modulation is effectively increasing the channel capacity of
time varying wireless channel while maintain the desired
bit error rate. In adaptive modulation technique modulation
scheme and convolution code rate are varied according to
the variation in the communication channel. The
transmitter can choice the appropriate modulation scheme
and code rate is depend upon the SNR (signal to noise
ratio) threshold such that it guarantees a BER (bit error
rate) below the desired BER [6].The SNR thresholds are
obtained from the BER Vs SNR characteristics of a
modulation schemes. The probability of BER for different
modulation scheme in the AWGN channel are given by [7].
…… (1)
…… (2)
…… (3)

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2012)
Where Q = complementary error function, γb = Signal to A short description of the physical layer of WiMAX system
noise ratio, Ma = is order of modulation. is listed below:
1. Generate the information bits randomly.
The Capacity for different modulation scheme in the AWGN
2. Encode the information bits using convolutional encoder
channel are given by [4].
with specified generator matrix.
C = R (1-BER) log2M bps/Hz …. (4) 3. Encoded information bits are then punctured to create
the variable coding rates to reduced amount of data to be
Where C = Channel capacity, R = code rate transmitted.
4. Encoded information bits are then interleaved to arrange
BER = Bit error rate, M = no. of points in the constellation data in a non-contiguous way to increase performance.
In order to decide the proper level from this plot, we 5. Use BPSK, QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM, 32QAM, 64QAM
have to decide our desired BER are 10-2, 10-3, 10-4 and modulation to convert the binary bits, 0 and 1, into
calculate the SNR threshold in each desired BER perform complex signals.
following steps: 6. Performed serial to parallel conversion.
1. SNR range is split into K+1 region where K is 7. Use IFFT to generate OFDM signals.
no. of modulation and coding scheme here 8. Performed cyclic prefix insertion.
K=12. 9. Performed serial to parallel conversion.
2. Assign a modulation coding scheme to 10. The signals are transmitted over an AWGN channel .
operate within a particular region can be 11. At the receiver side, perform reverse operations to
described as : decode the received sequences of information bits.
11. Count the number of specious bits by comparing the
M1 if 0 ≤ SNR ≤ α1 decoded bit sequences with original one.
M2 if α1 < SNR ≤ α2 12. Calculate the Bit Error Probability (BER) and Capacity
Mmod = M3 if α2 < SNR ≤ α3 as a function of against different values of signal to noise
: ratio (SNR) and plot it accordingly.
MK if αK-1< SNR ≤ ∞ …. (5) The OFDM parameters used in WiMAX system are listed
in Table I.
Where Mmod, mod=1, 2, 3… K is modulation coding
Table I. OFDM PARAMETERS USED IN WiMAX
schemes.

III. System Architecture

A. WiMAX system architecture

Figure 1. Shows the block diagram of Physical layer of

WiMAX system [8] [9].

Figure 1. Physical layer of WiMAX System

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2012)
7) Data Out: Here the BER and capacity are calculated
when data is received and demodulated.
B. Adaptive Modulation System Architecture:
IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS
Figure 2. Shows the block diagram of Adaptive
Modulation System. In this section the performance of Adaptive modulation
BER and capacity results are presented using fixed
WiMAX simulator in the AWGN channel. The used
OFDM parameters are listed in Table I. Simulation result
based on Adaptive modulation technique. In adaptive
modulation technique modulation scheme and convolution
code rate are varied according to the variation in the
communication channel. The transmitter can choice the
appropriate modulation scheme and code rate is depend
upon the SNR (signal to noise ratio) threshold . Table II.
shown the switching threshold levels of SNR for BER 10-2,
10-3, 10-4.

Table II. Switching thresholds levels

Figure 2.-Adaptive Modulation System

The main parts of system are:-

1) DATA IN: Here is where the information bits are
randomly produced.

2) Adaptive Modulation Switch: This is the logic that

decides which modulation scheme to apply the bits
generated from DATA IN. For do this work it requires
information from the channel measures block. In can also
send the adaptive modulation information to the receiver.

3) Transmitter: Transmitter is responsible for

transmitting the data over a AWGN Channel. Transmitter
can adopt different types of modulation scheme is depend
upon the output of the adaptive modulation switching
block.

4) Channel: AWGN channel is applied to the

transmitted signal.

5) Receiver: Receiver is responsible for data reception
and demodulation of the received data.
6) Channel Measures: Channel measures can determine
the quality of the channel and information is then sent back to
the adaptive modulation switch for adaptation decisions.
Figure 3. Shows the performance of different
modulation schemes (BPSK, QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM,
32QAM, 64QAM) with code rate ½ , ¾ in the AWGN
channel evaluated by plotting the BER Vs SNR
characteristics.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2012)
Figure 5, 6 and 7 display the performance of BER
versus SNR for Adaptive modulation system at desired
BER 10-2, 10-3, 10-4 respectively. These results show the
effectiveness of Adaptive modulation to keep a BER lower
than the desired BER .

Figure 3. BER performance of different modulation schemes (BPSK,

QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM, 32QAM, 64QAM) with code rate ½ , ¾

Figure 4. Shows the capacity variation with SNR for

different modulation schemes (BPSK, QPSK, 8QAM,
16QAM, 32QAM, 64QAM) with code rate ½ , ¾ in the
AWGN channel evaluated by plotting the Capacity Vs
SNR characteristics.
Figure 5.BER performance of Adaptive modulation at desired BER
10-2

Figure 4. Capacity variation with SNR for different modulation

schemes (BPSK, QPSK, 8QAM, 16QAM, 32QAM, 64QAM ) with
code rate ½ , ¾
Figure 6.BER performance of Adaptive modulation at desired BER
10-3

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2012)

Figure 9.Capacity of Adaptive modulation at desired BER 10 -3

Figure 7.BER performance of Adaptive modulation at desired BER

10-4

Figure 8, 9 and 10 display the performance of capacity

versus SNR for Adaptive modulation system at desired
BER 10-2,10-3, 10-4 respectively. These results show the
variation of capacity of Adaptive modulation for different
values of desired BER (10-2, 10-3, 10-4).

Figure 10.Capacity of Adaptive modulation at desired BER 10 -3

V. C ONCLUSION

The BER performance of the Adaptive modulation

based system is similar to BPSK modulation in the given
threshold value of BER simulations and it give the higher
capacity value similar to 64QAM. At the lower SNR value
the BPSK modulation is preferred because BPSK
Figure 8.Capacity of Adaptive modulation at desired BER 10 -2
modulation gives the lowest BER and the higher SNR
values it give lowest BER but the channel capacity is very
low.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 8, August 2012)
At the higher SNR value the 64-QAM is preferred
because at the higher SNR it give the higher capacity value
but at the lower SNR value it have high BER. At further
increment the SNR value is utilized to improve the capacity
by changing the code rate.

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