QoS-Driven adaptive power and rate allocation for multichannel communications in mobile wireless networks

We propose a quality-of-service (QoS) driven power and rate adaptation scheme for multichannel communications systems over wireless links. In particular, we use multichannel communications to model either diversity or multiplexing systems, which play a fundamental role in physical-layer evolutions of mobile wireless networks. By integrating information theory with the concept of effective capacity, our proposed scheme aims at maximizing the multichannel-systems throughput subject to a given delay-QoS constraint. Under the framework of convex optimization, we develop the optimal adaptation algorithms. Our analyses show that when the QoS constraint becomes loose, the optimal power-control policy converges to the well-known water-filling scheme, where the Shannon (or ergodic) capacity can be achieved. On the other hand, when the QoS constraint gets stringent, the optimal policy converges to the scheme operating at a constant-rate (i.e., the zero-outage capacity), which, by using only a limited number of subchannels, approaches to the Shannon capacity. This observation implies that the optimal effective capacity function decreases from the ergodic capacity to the zero-outage capacity as the QoS constraint becomes more stringent. Furthermore, unlike the single-channel communications, which have to trade off the throughput for QoS provisioning, the multichannel communications can achieve both high throughput and stringent QoS at the same time.