Part 3: Channel Capacity

ECEN478 Shuguang Cui

 ECEN478, Cui

Shannon Capacity
! Defined as the maximum mutual information of
channel (need some background reading)
! Maximum error-free data rate a channel can
support.

! Theoretical limit (usually don’t know how to

achieve)
! Inherent channel characteristics
! Related to system resource constraints

! We focus on AWGN channel with fading

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AWGN Channel Capacity

AWGN channel capacity, bandwidth W (or B), deterministic gain:

Per dimension: 0.5 Bits/s/Hz

Total: Bits/s
If average received power is P watts and single-sided
noise PSD is N 0 watts/Hz,
P
C = B log 2 (1 + )
N0 B

g[i]=1 is known
and fixed
Goldsmith,
Figure 4.1
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Power and Bandwidth Limited

Regimes
P
C = B log 2 (1 + )
N0 B
P
SNR = ! =
N0 B
Bandwidth limited regime capacity logarithmic
in power, approximately linear in bandwidth.

Power limited regime capacity linear in power,

insensitive to bandwidth.
P
If B goes to infinity? C! = log 2 e
N0
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Capacity Curve
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Shannon Limit in AWGN channel

What is the minimum SNR per bit (Eb/N0) for reliable communications?
Eb P
=
N 0 CN 0
Eb P P
( ) min = lim P "0 = = !1.59dB
N0 C ( P , B) N 0 P
(log 2 e) N 0
N0
Where:
P
lim P "0 C = B log 2 (1 + ) = C! Same effect as B goes to infinity.
Nb B
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Capacity of Flat-Fading Channels

! Capacity defines theoretical rate limit
! Maximum error free rate a channel can support

! Depends on what is known about channel

! CSI: channel state information
! Unknown fading:
! Worst-case channel capacity
! Only fading statistics known
! Hard to find capacity
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Capacity of fast fading channel

2
gl = hl : Flat Rayleigh, receiver knows. Unit BW, B=1.

Fast fading, with a certain decoding delay requirement, we can

transmit time duration LTc (L>>1), i.e., L coherence time periods.

For l-th coherence time period, we have roughly the same gain: g l
2 P
The received SNR: gl! = hl
N0
The capacity (Rx knows CSI): log 2 (1 + g l ! )
1 L
Average capacity over L period: !
L l =1
log 2 (1 + g l " )
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Fast fading, only Rx knows CSI

As L goes large:
1 L
#
L l =1
log 2 (1 + g l ! ) " E[log 2 (1 + g l ! )] ! l = g l !

C = " log 2 (1 + ! ) p (! )d! , ! = g! ,

This is so called Ergodic Capacity.

Achievable even only receiver knows the channel state.

Less than
AWGN
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Fading Known at
both Transmitter and Receiver
! For fixed transmit power, same as only receiver
knowledge of fading, but easy to implement

! Transmit power P(h) can also be adapted

! Leads to optimization problem:

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An equivalent approach:
power allocation over time
Channel model:

Notation: hl = h[l]

Subject to:
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Optimal solution
Also use Lagrangian method, we have the water-filling solution:

To define the water level, solve:

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Asymptotic results
As L goes to infinity, we have:

The solution converges to be the same as the textbook approach!

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Water-filling over time

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Implementation with discrete states

Goldsmith, Fig 4.4

We only need N sets of optimal AWGN codebooks.

(We need feedback channel to know the channel state.)
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Performance Comparison

At high SNR, waterfilling does not provide any gain.

Transmitter knowledge allows rate adaptation and
simplifies coding.
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Time Invariant Frequency Selective

Channel

We have multiple parallel AWGN channels with a sum power constraint!

Yes, water-filling!
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Multicarrier system in ISI channel

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OFDM-discrete implementation of
multi-carrier system

Transmitter
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OFDM receiver

FFT matrix:
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Time Varying Frequency Selective

Channel

Maximize:

s. t.:

Two-dimension Water-filling!
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Summary of Single User Capacity

! Fast fading channel:
! Ergodic capacity: achievable with one fading code
or multiple sets of AWGN codes
! Outage with channel inversion: achievable with a
fixed AWGN code

! Frequency selective fast fading channel:

! Ergodic capacity is achieved with 2-D WF