Power control in feedback communications over a fading channel

Pilot symbol assisted modulation and a minimum mean-square error (MMSE) channel predictor are used to employ feedback MMSE power control over a frequency nonselective slow Rayleigh fading channel. Feedback is assumed to be noiseless and delayless. First, the performance of the pilot symbol system using MMSE power control is derived in the case of the frame size of two. Lag error is noticed to cause severe performance degradation, even when the channel is very slowly fading. In order to decrease the lag error and to get a good system performance, the number of estimator coefficients is found to become quite large. The operating strategy of MMSE power control is studied by Monte Carlo simulations and compared to various strategies presented in the literature. Spectral efficiency of the pilot symbol system is increased by transmitting more than one data symbol in a given frame. Finally, the performance of the pilot symbol system using MMSE power control is derived in the case of an optimal frame size.