IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol.

8, Issue 3, 1RMay 2011

ISSN (Online): 1694-0814
www.IJCSI.org 

A Low-complexity Power and Bit Allocation Algorithm for Multiuser

MIMO-OFDM Systems

Ayad Habib1, Khalid El Baamrani2 and Abdellah Ait Ouahman1

1
Team Telecommunication and Computer Networks,
FSSM, University Cadi Ayyad, P.O. Box 2390,
Marrakech, Morocco.

2
Department of Telecommunications, ENSA of Marrakech,
University Cadi Ayyad, P. O. Box 575,
Marrakech, Morocco.

applied. One has to note that this algorithm is of high

Abstract computational complexity and yields one bit optimal
In this paper, we present a low-complexity bit and power solution. Most of the existing algorithms are based on
allocation algorithm for multiuser MIMO-OFDM downlink greedy algorithm and require an iterative procedure for
transmission. In order to minimize the total transmit power under their implementation, which delays obtaining an optimal
the condition that users'QoS requirements are satisfied, a novel
solution and affects the quality of service [2].
resource allocation scheme is proposed to exploit the multiuser
diversity gain. The proposed algorithm involves adaptive
subcarrier allocation, adaptive modulation and eigen In MIMO-OFDM systems, the MIMO channel can be
beamforming and achieves significant improvement in overall decomposed to a parallel scalar eigenmode subchannels by
system performance. Simulation results shows that the proposed singular value decomposition (SVD) without crosstalk
algorithm offers a similar performance and a lower complexity from one scalarchannel to the other. The results have
than previous algorithms. shown that the subcarrier andbit allocation achieved
Keywords: Multiuser MIMO OFDM, SVD, bit and power significant reduction in total transmitpower. Most of the
allocation. existing algorithms only use one ortwo of the largest
eigenmode subchannels to transmit data and neglected the
other spatial subchannels. In fact, more eigen subchannels
1. Introduction can be exploited to transmit data [3,4]. In this paper, a low-
complexity adaptive bit and power allocation algorithm for
With the increasing requirements for high-data-rate
downlink MIMO-OFDM systems is investigated. We
multimedia services, multiple-input multiple-output
assume that the CSI is perfectly knowen at both the
(MIMO) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
transmitter and receiver. A group of parallel singular value
(OFDM) techniques have received more and more interest.
subchannels are first generated by singular value
MIMO-OFDM is a very promising technology in future
decomposition (SVD) to the MIMO-OFDM channel. In
wireless communication systems. However, it introduces
order to efficiently utilize the spatial resources, the
new problems relating how to utilize systems spatio-
proposed algorithm extends the data transmission to all the
temporal-spectral and power resources appropriately. With
non-zero spatial subchannels. The rest of this paper is
an efficient dynamic resource allocation scheme high data
organized as follows. Section 2 describes the system model
rate can be provided and different users’ QoS requirement
and definitions. In Section 3, the proposed algorithm is
can be guaranteed [1]. In order to obtain optimal subcarrier
explained and in Section 4 the performance obtained from
power or bit allocations the greedy algorithm is usually
IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 8, Issue 3, 1RMay 2011
ISSN (Online): 1694-0814
www.IJCSI.org 

simulations results is presented. Finally, some conclusions Let H k , n denotes the N r × N t channel matrix of user k
are drawn. on subcarrier n. By SVD, the channel matrix can be
decomposed into
M
2. System Description H k , n=U k ,n Λ k , n V kH, n=∑ u ik , n λik , n (v ik , n )H
i=1 (1)
In this paper, we consider a multiusers MIMO-OFDM
system with K users and N subcarriers. The base station
where (.)H represents the complex conjugate transpose
(BS) has N t transmit antennas and each user has N r
receive antennas. The downlink system diagram is shown of a matrix. U k ,n =[u k1 , n , u 2k ,n ⋯u Nk ,rn ] and
in Fig 1. We assume that the channel state information V k , n=[v 1k ,n , v 2k , n⋯v kN, n ] are the singular vectors,
t

(CSI) is perfectly known to the receiver and the

Λ k , n is the diagonal matrix with singular value of H k , n ,
transmitter, and the channel changes little during the
transmission [5]. and M =rank ( H k ,n ) is the rank of H k , n The stream
At the transmitter, we assume that user k has a data-rate data over subcarrier n is demultiplexed into M substream.
T
requirement of Rk bits per OFDM symbol. In each Let S=[s 1 , s 2 ⋯s M ] denotes the transmitted symbol of
symbol duration a data stream composed of Rk bits is fed M substream. The corresponding transmit power diagonal
into a subcarrier and bit allocation block. The proposed matrix is P=diag( p1 , p2 ⋯ p M ) . By precoding the
algorithm is applied to assign different subcarriers to transmitted symbol vector S with
different users. Then the mapped data stream is load to 1 1 2 M
V k , n=[v k ,n , v k , n⋯v k , n ] , the transmitted signal vector
corresponding subcarriers. Transmit precoding matrix V is
can be written as:
derived from singular value decomposition (SVD) for 1 M
every subcarrier, which changes the spatial channel into a P S=∑ v k , n √ p j s j
1 2 j
X =V k ,n
(2)
series of parallel subchannels with no crosstalk from each j=1
other. After precoding, the data stream is sent to inverse T
r k ,n =[r 1 , r 2 ⋯r ] =H k ,n X +n
Nr (3)
fast-Fourier-transformation (IFFT) module to do OFDM
modulation for every transmit antenna, the cyclic prefix Where n is the complex white Gaussian noise vector with
(CP) is added to every OFDM symbol and then every dimension a variance of σ 2 .
transmitted. At the receiver, by decoding the receive symbol vector
At the receiver, the similar adverse process is taken. r k ,n by (u kj , n) H , we get the received data symbol
on spatial subchannel j.
y j=(u kj ,n ) H r k , n=(u kj ,n ) H (H k , n X +n)
M M
y j=(u kj ,n ) H ( ∑ u kj , n λ kj ,n ( v kj ,n ) H )( ∑ v kj , n √ p j s j)+( u kj , n )H n
j =1 j=1
M
y j=λ kj , n (v kj ,n )H (∑ v kj , n √ p j s j )+( u kj ,n )H n
j=1
j j H
y j=λ k , n √ p j s j+(u k , n) n (4)
With precoding and decoding the transmit symbol vector
respectively by V k , n and U k ,n , we can notice from
equation (4) that the MIMO channel is transformed into M
parallel single-input single-output (SISO) subchannels
without crosstalk when the CSI is perfectly known at the
Figure 1: The system model of downlink multiuser MIMO- transmitter and the receiver.
OFDM.

3. Resource allocation algorithm

In this section a resource allocation algorithm is presented

for downlink multiuser MIMO-OFDM system. To avoid
severe co-channel interference (CCI), we do not allow
IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 8, Issue 3, 1RMay 2011
ISSN (Online): 1694-0814
www.IJCSI.org 
2
more than one user to share the same subcarrier, we ∞ −t
1
i j
assume that p k , n is the required power to transmit b k ,n Q( x)= ∫e 2
dt
bits on ith spatial subchannel over nth subcarrier of user k.
√2 π x
In order to guarantee users QoS requirements, the required
S k ⊂{1,2 , ... , N } denote the set of subcarriers of user k, i
power, to transmit b k ,n bit on the ith spatial subchannel
and BER target is the objective bit error rate, the
over nth subcarrier for user k, is given by [9]
optimization problem can be formulated as: i
i f k (b k ,n )
p k ,n = (8)
(λik , n )2
K N M
i
Minimize P T =∑ ∑ ∑ p ik ,n (5) Let Δ P k ,n denote the additional power needed for
k=1 n=1 i=1 transmitting one additional bit on the ith spatial subchannel
M over nth subcarrier for user k. It is given by
Subject to ∑ pik , n=R k ,n
i=1 i i
i f k (b k , n+1)− f k (b k ,n )
BER k ,n =BERTarget Δ Pik ,n= (9)
S i∩S j=∅ ∀i ≠ j (λik ,n )2
S 1∪S 2∪⋯∪S K ={1,2 , ... , N }
We define the term G k as follows
M =rank ( H k ,n )
When S 1 ... S K are disjoint, the system can be viewed as N M i 2
(λ k ,n )
a single user system on each subcarrier. So, we can G k =∑ ∑ (10)
transform the problem of minimizing the total transmit n =1 i =1 N0
power to a problem of minimizing the power required on
each subcarrier [6], then the optimization problem in (5) To solve the problem of minimization the total transmit
can be rewritten as: power, we present our approach in two steps: the first step
is to allocate the subcarriers to the user that has the largest
M G k . In the second step we assign the bits and power to
Minimize ∑ pik , n (6)
user k over all subcarrier in S k on the subchannel that
i=1
M requires the least additional power.
Subject to ∑ pik , n=R k ,n Let Ne (k ) be the number of subcarriers for user k
i=1

BER ki ,n =BERTarget Ne (k )= floor (N / K ) (11)

S i∩S j=∅ ∀i ≠ j
S 1∪S 2∪⋯∪S K ={1,2 , ... , N } We assume that the data rate Rk , n for user k on
M =rank ( H k ,n ) subcarrier n is constant, so Rk , n can be expressed as

Denote f k ( c) be the required transmit power to transmit

Rk
Rk , n=round ( ) (12)
c bits satisfying target bit error rate ( BER k ) when Ne(k )
channel gain is unity. In the case of M-ary Quadrature Our algorithm is described as follows:
Amplitude Modulation (MQAM), f k (c) can be
represented as [7]
2

f k (c)=
3
Q
[ ( )]
N 0 −1 BER k
4
c
( 2 −1) (7)

N0
where denotes the variance of the Additive White
2
Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and Q( x) is the Q-function
[8].
IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 8, Issue 3, 1RMay 2011
ISSN (Online): 1694-0814
www.IJCSI.org 

4. Performance analysis
The performance of the proposed algorithm is investigated
in this section. In our simulation system, the channel is
modeled as Raleigh fading channel. The bandwidth of the
system is 2.5MHz and the number of transmit data for
each user is Rk =192bits .
The proposed algorithm (PA) is compared with a novel
resource allocation algorithm presented in [9] and dynamic
subcarrier allocation with only the best eigen subchannel
(DSA-BES) [10].
Figure 2 shows the total transmit power versus the number
of users for BER=10 −3 , number of subcarriers
N =256 and N t =N r =4 . It can be seen that the
proposed algorithm gives almost the same results as
Algorithm in [9] and gives better results compared to the
DSA-BES especially when the number of users is large.

Figure 2: Total transmit power versus the number of users

forK = 20,N = 256 N r =N t =4 and BER=10− 3 .

Figure 3 shows the same simulation as Figure 2 except in

this case the number of subcarriers is N =128 . When we
compare the result in the Figure 2 with the result in the
Figure 3, we can see that the total transmit power increases
when the number of subcarriers in the system decreases. It
can also see that proposed algorithm (PA) keeps the same
performances that in Figure 2.
IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 8, Issue 3, 1RMay 2011
ISSN (Online): 1694-0814
www.IJCSI.org 

the number of users for different values of BER.

Simulation results shows that the total transmit power is
decreasing with the increase in the BER value.

Figure 3: Total transmit power versus the number of users for

K = 20, N = 128, N r =N t =4 and BER=10− 3

Figure 5: Total transmit power versus the number of users for

K = 20,N = 128, N r =N t =4 for different values of BER.
In order to investigates the impact of the number of
antenna, Figure 4 shows the total transmit power versus the
number of users for BER=10− 3 , number of subcarriers
N = 128, the number of receive antenna N r =2 and the
number of transmit antenna N t =4 . the simulation results In order to compare the computational complexity between
demonstrate that the required transmit power for proposed the proposed algorithm and the algorithm in [9], we
algorithm (PA) and the algorithm in [9] is increased when compare the needed CPU times for running each
the number of receive antennas is decreased . the reason is algorithm. Figure 6 shows the CPU times needed for
that the number of exploited spatial subchannels decreases. running each algorithm versus the number of users for
K =20, N =128, N t =N r =4 and BER=10− 3 It can
be seen that our algorithm converge rapidly than the
algorithm in [9] especially when the number of users is
large.

Figure 4: Total transmit power versus the number of users for

K=20,N=128, N r =2 N t=4 and BER=10− 3

Figure 6: Total transmit power versus the number of users for

K = 20,N = 128, N r =N t =4 and BER=10− 3 .
Figure 5 shows the total transmit power of the PA versus
IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 8, Issue 3, 1RMay 2011
ISSN (Online): 1694-0814
www.IJCSI.org 

Ayad Habib was born in BeniMellal, Morocco in 1979. He

received his License degree (equiv. B.A.) in computer science
4. Conclusion from the University of Cadi Ayyad, Marrakesh, Morocco, in 2002,
his diplomat in Computer Engineering from Ecole Normale
In this paper, a low complexity algorithm for bit, supperieure, Marrakesh, in 2003 and his D.E.S.A. (equiv. M.A.) in
subcarrier and power allocation for MIMO-OFDM Electrical Engineering from the University of Cadi Ayyad,
Marrakech, Morocco, in 2007, He is currently a Ph.D. Student at
downlink system has been presented. The proposed the same university. His research interests include multiuser
algorithm minimizes the total transmit power under the MIMO-OFDM systems, communication theory and computer
condition that users QoS requirements are satisfied. The networks.
simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm
offers almost the same required transmit power than the Khalid El Baamrani was born in Ouarzazate, Morocco in
1976. He received the PhD degrees in telecommunication
algorithm in [9]. Moreover, the proposed algorithm
Engineering from the University of Cadi Ayyad, Marrakesh,
converge rapidly than the previous algorithms especially Morocco in 2005. He is presently working as an Assistant
when the number of users is large. Professor in the ENSA of Marrakesh, University of Cadi Ayyad,
Marrakesh, Morocco. His research interests include
communication theory, multiuser information theory, OFDM
systems, and MIMO-OFDM systems.
References
[1] YJ Zhang and KB Letaief. (2006) ‘Dynamic multiuser resource Abdellah Ait Ouahman received the doctorate thesis in Signal
allocation and adaptation for wireless ystems’, IEEE Wireless Processing from the University of Grenoble, France, in November
Commun, pp.38-47. 1981. His research was in Signal Processing and
[2] Pan YH, Letaief KB, Cao ZG. (2004) ‘Dynamic resource allocation Telecommunications. Then he received the PhD degree in
with adaptive beamforming for MIMO/OFDM systems under perfect Physics Science from the University of Sciences in Marrakesh ,
and imperfect CSI’, Proceedings of IEEE WCNC, Atlanta, Morocco, in 1992. He is now Professor and responsible of the
GA,USA,pp.93-97. Telecommunications and Computer Science and Networking
. laboratory in the Faculty of Sciences Semlalia in Marrakesh,
Morocco. His research interests include the signal and image
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and bit allocation for MIMO-OFDM systems with perfect and partial Actually he is a director of National School of Applied Sciences ,
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pp.1188–1193. and Proceedings.

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