On the Information Rate of Single-Carrier FDMA Using Linear Frequency Domain Equalization and Its Application for 3GPP-LTE Uplink

This paper compares the information rate achieved by SC-FDMA (single-carrier frequency-division multiple access) and OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiple access), where a linear frequency-domain equalizer is assumed to combat frequency selective channels in both systems. Both the single user case and the multiple user case are considered. We prove analytically that there exists a rate loss in SC-FDMA compared to OFDMA if decoding is performed independently among the received data blocks for frequency selective channels. We also provide a geometrical interpretation of the achievable information rate in SCFDMA systems and point out explicitly the relation to the well-known waterfilling procedure in OFDMA systems. The geometrical interpretation gives an insight into the cause of the rate loss and its impact on the achievable rate performance. Furthermore, motivated by this interpretation we point out and show that such a loss can be mitigated by exploiting multiuser diversity and spatial diversity in multi-user systems with multiple receive antennas. In particular, the performance is evaluated in 3GPP-LTE uplink scenarios.