On efficient link error prediction based on convex metrics

A methodology is presented to predict the frame error rate (FER) in wireless links for a wide range of channel conditions and retransmission strategies. This method measures the variations in signal amplitude and noise variance within a frame and applies a convex metric based on Shannon's capacity formula to account for Doppler penalties and diversity gains due to multipath combining and retransmission strategies such as hybrid ARQ with Chase combining or with incremental redundancy. This method requires very little information about the received signals and uses a single (AWGN) reference curve for the given channel code. This link error prediction (LEP) method is of great value for system monitoring, scheduling and system simulations.