Adaptive Modulation for OFDM Based
Multi-hop Wireless Networks
Maryam Najmafshar and Vahid Tabatabavakili
School of Electrical Engineering
Iran University of Science & Technology, Tehran 16846, Iran
Email: mnajmafshar@ee.iust.ac.ir, vakily@iust.ac.ir
Abstract- In a cellular network with relays, the mobile
station (MS) can benefit from both coverage extension and
throughput enhancement. To improve the throughput of such
cellular multi-hop networks, we propose an adaptive
modulation (AM) combined with orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM). Using AM with OFDM enables
the transmitter to change the order of the modulation on each
subcarrier separately depending on channel conditions
resulting in a higher throughput in the network. Simulation
results show that our proposed scheme can significantly
improve the end-to-end throughput.
Keywords- Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDM, Multi-hop, Adaptive Modulation
I. INTRODUCTION
Multi-hop wireless networks have been widely used as an
attractive technique to enhance network capacity and
coverage. In a multi-hop network, one or more mobile
stations (MS) are allowed to send their data to base station
(BS) via one or more relay stations (RS). Relays may
amplify or decode and then forward the signal received from
MS to the BS. This causes a better signal quality at the BS
and improves the signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver.
Also, while one special channel experiences deep fading
effects caused by multi-path propagation of the signal, other
channels may be in good condition [1]. Thus, applying relay
in networks can also overcome the multipath-fading
problem.
Recently, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) is widely used for high-speed data transmission in
wireless standard technologies such as IEEE 802.11a/g/n,
IEEE 806.16 and 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) in
Europe, because of its ability to eliminate Inter Symbol
Interference (ISI). The major advantage of OFDM is that it
translates the frequency selective fading channel into several
parallel flat fading sub-channels [2]. In order to prevent ISI
due to the multi-path fading, a cyclic prefix is added to the
beginning of the OFDM symbol, which is longer than the
maximum delay spread of the wireless channel.
It has been widely researched that adaptive resource
management including power allocation and bit-loading
algorithms can offer substantial gains to the system
performances [3]. In this context, adaptive modulation (AM)
was previously proposed to enhance throughput by
matching transmission rates to time varying channel
conditions. Integrated use of adaptive modulation and
subcarrier allocation with constraint on bit error rate has
been studied in [3]-[5]. In [6], the authors propose an
1
adaptive modulation scheme that combines the regular
modulation modes with variable–rate polynomial
cancellation code schemes for next generation OFDM
systems. Previous studies on adaptive modulation have
mainly carried out in two different directions: minimizing
overall transmit power under a data rate constraint [4], [7]
and maximizing the data rate under a power constraint [3].
Further, there exists other work which investigates the
effect of multi-hop transmission on OFDM systems.
Authors in [8] propose a routing algorithm to maximize the
uplink system throughput with fixed modulation mode in the
transmitter. In [9], the authors investigate the effect of a
subcarrier and power allocation method in a multi-hop
OFDM system with fixed number of bits transmitted on
each subcarrier.
In this paper we propose a novel scheme which applies
both OFDM and AM modulation to improve the
performance of relay networks which has not been used in
the literature to the best of our knowledge. We show that
multi-hop transmission along with a bit loading algorithm
on each subcarrier improves the system performance in term
of the end-to-end throughput. We compare the results with a
single-hop OFDM system which performs the same AM
scheme. Also, we compare the proposed scheme with a
multi-hop transmission system with fixed number of bits on
each subcarrier.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II
describes the system model of OFDM multi-hop
transmission. Section III presents proposed joint AM and
OFDM transmission scheme. Simulation results are given in
Section IV, and Section V concludes the paper.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
In this paper we consider a multi-cell cellular radio
system. In each cell there are a number of fixed relay
stations (RSs) and a single BS. Each user sends its data on a
channel with the best quality among all possible channels.
Indeed a user may either send directly to the BS, or via one
of the RSs. We assume that there is no multipath and fading
effects between the RSs and BS and the channel between
them is always in good condition (e.g., line-of-sight). The
network structure is illustrated in Fig. 1.
We consider an OFDM uplink channel for each user. Each
OFDM transmitter uses N subcarriers. A discrete time
channel model and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN)

RS1
MS2 BS
RS3 RS2
MS1
Fig. 1. System Structure
with one side power spectral density equal to N 0 are
assumed. Both MS-BS and MS-RS channels are slow
Rayleigh fading channels with channel gains hMB and
hMR respectively. The channel stays constant during one
OFDM symbol but different symbols can observe
independent fading. Adaptive Modulation (AM) is used in
order to adjust the transmission rate on each subcarrier
dynamically according to channel quality on the
corresponding subcarrier. Subcarriers of all users have equal
power, and no power allocation algorithm is considered. For
adaptive modulation in MS, we use four modulation modes:
BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM and 64QAM.
III. JOINT ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND MULTI-HOP
TRANSMISSION
A typical OFDM transmission system is shown in Fig. 2.
An OFDM symbol is the sum of a number of orthogonal
subcarriers with base band data on each subcarrier being
independently modulated. After constellation mapping on
each subcarrier an inverse fast Fourier transform (FFT) is
computed on each set of symbols, giving a set of complex
time domain samples. Then, Cyclic Prefix (CP) is added to
the symbol and it is transmitted on the channel. At the
receiver, after removing CP an FFT is done to convert the
signal back to the frequency domain. Symbol detection on
each subcarrier is done based on the modulation mode
performed on it. In this paper, our goal is to enhance
overall system throughput by using a number of relay
stations in each cell. Multi-hop relaying traditionally has
been studied as a mean for enabling network operation
without any infrastructure. Using RS in the system makes
it possible to rout the signal from MS to BS via alternative
good quality channels when direct channel between them is
in deep fade.
A. Adaptive Modulation (AM)
We consider M-QAM modulations with
r
M = 2 , r = r1 ,..., rm , where rm denotes the highest mode
of AM scheme [3]. AM method takes channel conditions
into account to choose a modulation scheme with highest
2
rate to maximize bit rate while keeping the BER
performance of the system lower than a desired threshold.
S Adaptive P CP
/ Modulation IFFT / insertion
P S
Channel
P Symbol S CP
/ detection FFT / removal
S P
Fig. 2. A typical OFDM transmission system
The instantaneous received SNR for MS-BS or MS-RS
channels on subcarrier n are γ 1 = PhMB,n N 0W
and γ 2 = PhMR,n N 0W , respectively. P is the average
transmission power and W is the bandwidth. To employ the
AM, we partition the entire SNR range into m+1 disjoint
intervals. Let γ n be the instantaneous SNR on subcarrier n
of a user. When γ n ∈ [γ r ,n , γ r +1,n ) , the mode r of AM is
chosen for subcarrier n, with γ 0,n = 0 and γ m,n = ∞ . No
signal is transmitted on subcarrier n when γ n ∈ [γ 0,n , γ 1,n ) .
Since we like to keep the BER of the system lower than a
desired threshold, the boundary points should be chosen
accordingly. A tight Bit Error Rate (BER) approximation for
square M-QAM is given by [3]:
3γ (1)
Pber = 0.2 exp(− ),
2( M − 1)
This results in the following boundary points:
ln(5 Pber )(2 r − 1)
γ r ,n = − (2)
1.5
Notice that with a target BER value, these boundary
points depend only on the modulation level.
B. Adaptive Modulation in multi-hop OFDM system
For multi-hop transmission using AM, we assume that
perfect channel state information (CSI) is available in the
transmitter and so it can choose the channel with best
channel conditions among all the other channels. In other
words, when direct path to the BS is in deep fade,
transmitter prefers to send its data via a relay station. Since
channel gains are constant during an OFDM symbol,
attenuation can be compensated at the receiver. Each time a
user wants to send an OFDM symbol, it checks two possible
paths: direct and two hop transmission. Channel selection is
based on the average gain of it on each subcarrier. After
choosing the channel, the AM scheme is used to allocate
appropriate number of bits for an individual subcarrier.
When a subcarrier observes deep fading effects, no bit is
sent on it. Clearly by choosing the best channel each time
along with using AM, more bits are transmitted which
results in improving the system throughout.
It is noteworthy that performance of AM in a multi-hop
transmission is affected by SNR in each hop. As mentioned
above we assume that SNR in RS- BS link is high enough,
so that only first hob is determinative in the capacity of the 6

system.

(direct channel)
number of bits
4

2
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
The performance of joint AM and multi-hop transmission in 0
10 20 30 40 50 60
an OFDM system in comparison with other possible subcarrier number
(a)
transmission schemes is studied in this section through
computer simulation. A 10 path Rayleigh fading channel is 6

(indirect channel)
assumed in the simulation. N=64 subcarriers are available

number of bits
4
for each user and cyclic prefix length is ¼ of OFDM symbol
length. Simulation results are averaged over 500 2
independent channel realizations. We restrict the modulation
modes to BPSK, 4-, 16- and 64-QAM. 0
10 20 30 40 50 60
subcarrier number
Fig. 3 shows an example of instantaneous channel gains on (b)
different subcarriers for direct and indirect (relayed) paths
Fig. 4. Simulation result of AM for 64 subcarriers when P N W = 20dB : (a)
when P equals to 20 dB. We see that in this example
0

direct channel between MS and BS, (b) channel between MS, RS and BS
N 0W
direct channel from MS to BS has lower average channel
gains on all 64 subcarriers than indirect channel. Fig. 4 TABLE I
shows the number of bits allocated for each of the OPTIMIZED BOUNDARY POINTS FOR ADAPTIVE MODULATION OVER
subcarriers in each case. We see that with same transmission RAYLEIGH FADING CHANNEL
power, the number of bits that can be sent on direct channel
using AM are 112 bits in one OFDM symbol on all 64 Modulation Modes
subcarriers, while in multi-hop transmission we send 246 Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4
bits in one OFDM symbol indicating the improvement Boundary Point 5.48 10.252 17.241 23.474
caused by our proposed scheme. Note that when channel is [dB]
in deep fading on a subcarrier, no bits are transmitted on it. Number of bits 1 2 4 6

1.5
We examine the throughput that can be supported by each
direct channel gain

1 mode. Target BER is set to Pber = 10 −3 . Using equation (2),

0.5
boundary points for each modulation mode are given in
TABLE I. Fig. 5 shows that under equal channel
0
10 20 30 40 50 60
circumstances, using adaptive modulation can dramatically
subcarrier number increase channel throughput compared to fixed 4-QAM
(a)
modulation. Also, in comparison with single-hop system
3 which gets the benefit of adaptive modulation, multi-hop
indirect channel gain

transmission shows higher spectral efficiency in low SNR.

2
Fig. 6 plots the end-to-end BER performance in four
1 different cases. We see that using joint multi-hop and AM
scheme outperforms multi-hop transmission with fixed bit
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 rate equal to 2 bits per subcarrier (QPSK) by almost 7 dB
subcarrier number
(b)
for BER = 10 −3 . Note that both single-hop and multi-hop
systems display almost same BER performance. This causes
Fig. 3. Channel Gain: (a) direct channel between MS and BS, (b) channel
between MS, RS and BS
from the fact that the modulation is chosen according to a
BER, and consequently SNR, criterion. However multi-hop
transmission can achieve higher throughput and so higher
overall system capacity than single-hop case.

3
 V. CONCLUSION
6
In this paper, we presented an adaptive modulation
5 scheme in an OFDM based multi-hop network. For this
purpose, we applied adaptive modulation on each subcarrier
of the OFDM separately. Choosing the mode of the
Throughput (bit/sec/Hz)

4 Adaptive Modulation & Multihop

Adaptive Modulation & Singlehop modulation was based on the CSI received from the BS. The
3
4-QAM modulation & multihop results showed that the system throughput can be
significantly enhanced through the use of both OFDM and
2
adaptive modulation in multi-hop relaying. The proposed
scheme can be extended to a multi-user system with
adaptive subcarrier allocation, which is considered as our
1
future work.
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
average received SNR

Fig. 5. Comparison of throughput performance REFERENCES

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