Performance evaluation for integrated voice/data wireless networks with link adaptation

Link adaptation (LA) allows the selection of a proper coding/modulation scheme based on the channel conditions in order to cope with the radio channel quality during the connection period of a call. The effectiveness of LA is generally demonstrated in terms of spectral efficiency (b/s/Hz/sector) at the link level. In this paper, the performance of integrated voice/data service is analyzed from the system point of view. Numerical results show that the improvement in data throughput is about 128%, and that in the mean data delay is about 26% if LA is used for data service. The system level performance is obtained through queueing analysis while the link level performance is simulated using RUNE.