Block-Fading Channels at Finite Blocklength

This tutorial paper deals with the problem of characterizing the maximal achievable rate R* (n, e) at a given blocklength n and error probability e over block-fading channels. We review recent results that establish tight bounds on R* (n, e) and characterize its asymptotic behavior. Comparison between the theoretical results and the data rates achievable with the coding scheme used in LTE-Advanced are reported.