  Typically, forward error correction (FEC) codes are designed based on the
minimization of the error rate for a given code rate. However, for applications
that incorporate hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) protocol and adaptive
modulation and coding, the throughput is a more important performance metric
than the error rate. Polar codes, a new class of FEC codes with simple rate
matching, can be optimized efficiently for maximization of the throughput. In
this paper, we aim to design HARQ schemes using multilevel polar
coded-modulation (MLPCM). Thus, we first develop a method to determine a
set-partitioning based bit-to-symbol mapping for high order QAM constellations.
We simplify the LLR estimation of set-partitioned QAM constellations for a
multistage decoder, and we introduce a set of algorithms to design
throughput-maximizing MLPCM for the successive cancellation decoding (SCD).
These codes are specifically useful for non-combining (NC) and Chase-combining
(CC) HARQ protocols. Furthermore, since optimized codes for SCD are not optimal
for SC list decoders (SCLD), we propose a rate matching algorithm to find the
best rate for SCLD while using the polar codes optimized for SCD. The resulting
codes provide throughput close to the capacity with low decoding complexity
when used with NC or CC HARQ.
