Throughput Enhancements on Cellular Downlink Channels using Rateless Codes

Rateless codes have been shown to provide robust error correction over wireless channels. Using a stochastic geometry model, this paper studies the performance of cellular downlink with packet transmission based on rateless codes. For the case of Rayleigh fading, a novel and accurate approximation is proposed for the distribution of the packet transmission time of rateless codes. The performance of rateless codes is compared to that of fixed rate codes by evaluating the user rate and success probability achievable with the two channel coding schemes. Based on both the proposed analysis and network simulation, the paper shows that rateless coding provides both coverage and throughput gains relative to fixed rate coding, not only for the typical user but for all users in the cellular network.