Systems and methods for subframe-based link adaptation for a radio signal in a cellular communications network are disclosed. In one embodiment, a base station obtains a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement for data transmitted between the base station and a mobile terminal in a radio signal of the base station. The base station then updates a parameter (e.g., SINR offset) used to control a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) for transmission of data between the base station and the mobile terminal in the radio signal for one or more subframes in a frame structure of the radio signal based on the hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement. The one or more subframes are a subset of all of the subframes in the frame structure of the radio signal.