Paul Ho

Analysis of the error performance of trellis-coded modulations in Rayleigh-fading channels

This work presents an exact expression for the pairwise error event probability of trellis-coded modulation (TCM) transmitted over Rayleigh-fading channels. It includes phase shift keying (PSK) and multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) codes, as well as coherent and partially coherent (e.g. differential, pilot tone, etc.) detection. Due to the form of the exact pairwise error event probabilities, this calculation technique cannot be used with the transfer function technique to obtain an upper (union) bound on the overall bit error probability. For this reason, the authors estimate the bit error probability by considering only a small number of short error events. Through simulations, they found that the estimation is usually very accurate at high signal-to-noise ratios but not as accurate at lower signal-to-noise ratios. They study several coded modulation schemes this way. Among the results are the fact that TCM provides significant improvement in the error floor when detected differentially, and an asymmetry in the pairwise error event probability for 16 QAM. >

Error performance of multiple-symbol differential detection of PSK signals transmitted over correlated Rayleigh fading channels

The error performance of multiple-symbol differential detection of uncoded QPSK signals transmitted over correlated Rayleigh fading channels is studied. The optimal detector is presented, along with an exact expression for the corresponding pairwise error event probability. It is shown that multiple-symbol differential detection is a very effective strategy for eliminating the irreducible error floor associated with a conventional differential detector. In all of the cases investigated, a detector with an observation interval as small as two symbols is sufficient for this purpose. It is also found that the error performance of a multiple-symbol differential detector is not sensitive to the mismatch between the decoding metric and the channel fading statistics. >

Error performance of interleaved trellis-coded PSK modulations in correlated Rayleigh fading channels

The authors derive an exact and easily computed expression for the pairwise error event probability of interleaved coded PSK modulations transmitted over channels with correlated Rayleigh flat fading and additive white Gaussian noise. Both coherent and differential detection are considered. In the case of coded DPSK, it is found that full interleaving does not necessarily provide the best error performance, especially when the fading is relatively fast and when the autocorrelation function of the channel fading process exhibits an oscillating behavior. For coherent detection or for differential detection in channels with relatively slow fading, increasing the interleaving depth always improves the error performance. In these cases, an interleaving depth equivalent to one-fifth to one-quarter the duration of a fade cycle is almost as good as full interleaving. >

Robust channel estimation and ISI cancellation for OFDM systems with suppressed features

A feature-suppressed orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system and the corresponding channel estimation and intersymbol interference (ISI) mitigation techniques are investigated in this paper. Cyclic prefix (CP) and pilot tones, which are commonly used in civilian OFDM systems for ISI mitigation and channel estimation, create distinctive waveform features that can be easily used for synchronization and channel estimation purposes by intercepting receivers. As a result, CP and pilot tones are eliminated in the proposed feature suppressed OFDM system to reduce the interception probability. Instead, a set of specially designed OFDM symbols, driven by different pseudorandom sequences, are employed as preambles to avoid unique spectral signature. These preambles are inserted into the OFDM data symbol stream periodically and in a round-robin manner. In addition, a random frequency offset is introduced to each preamble to further mask the multicarrier signature. New challenges arising from these feature suppression efforts are studied, including robust channel estimation and demodulation techniques in the presence of frequency offset and severe interference. Based on our interference analysis, an iterative ISI and intercarrier interference (ICI) estimation-cancellation-based technique is proposed for both channel estimation and OFDM data demodulation. Our channel estimator performs joint frequency offset and channel impulse response estimation based on the maximum-likelihood (ML) principle. To reduce its complexity, we employ a number of techniques, which include approximation of the ML metrics, as well as fast Fourier transform pruning. The performances and feasibility of the proposed feature suppressed OFDM system and the channel estimator are analyzed and verified through numerical simulations.

PSK and DPSK trellis codes for fast fading, shadowed mobile satellite communication channels

The performance of 8-PSK and 8-DPSK trellis codes is presented for a class of fast fading, land mobile satellite communication channels. The fading model is Rician but, in addition, the line-of-sight path is subjected to a fast lognormal attenuation that represents tree shadowing. The fading parameters used in this study represent the degree of shadowing and are based on measured data. The primary application considered is for digital speech transmission and thus, bit error probabilities in the order of 10/sup -3/ are emphasized. Sensitivity of the bit error probability to amplitude fading, amplitude and phase fading, and decoding delay is presented. Performance is determined via digital computer simulation. Optimal four- and eight-state codes are determined and optimality is found to be dependent on the presence of lognormal shadowing. >

Joint source and channel coding using a non-linear receiver

The joint optimization of the source and channel coders in a system consisting of a vector quantizer (VQ) whose output indices are mapped directly into points in the modulation signal space is considered. A decoder based on a nonlinear estimator is used to reconstruct the source signal. An iterative algorithm is introduced which jointly optimizes the VQ and the modulation signal set using as optimality criterion the minimum mean-square error (MSE) between the original and the reconstructed signals. It is shown that a jointly optimized system based on average channel characteristics significantly outperforms (by up to 5 dB) a reference system based on a VQ designed for the given source and a standard quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation signal set.<<ETX>>

Pilot symbol-assisted detection of CPM schemes operating in fast fading channels

We present a coherent detection technique for continuous phase modulation (CPM) operating in the Rayleigh flat fading channel. The technique is based on the idea of inserting periodically data dependent pilot symbols that force the CPM signal to pass through known phase states. This transmission format enables the receiver to extract from the received signal the channel fading gains at regularly spaced instants. When coupled with proper channel estimation filters, very accurate channel state information (CSI) can be estimated at the receiver for fading compensation. Moreover, the accuracy of the CSI can be further refined by adopting a multiple-pass decoding approach. The paper discusses (a) the pilot symbol encoding technique required to force a M-level CPM scheme with a modulation index of p/M, p is an integer, to return periodically to a set of known phase states, (b) the optimal channel estimation filters, (c) a trellis-based precoding technique that can reduce the bit error rate in M-level CPM systems by close to 50%, and (d) a multiple-pass channel estimator/demodulator. Analytical and simulation results are presented for minimum shift keying (MSK), Gaussian MSK, and four-level continuous phase frequency shift keying with a modulation index of 1/4. It is observed that our pilot symbol-assisted CPM schemes exhibit no irreducible error floor even at a channel fade rate of three percent the symbol rate. The implicit phase coding in CPM and the accurate CSI provided by the pilot symbols lead to a diversity effect in the bit error rate curves of these modulation schemes.

Error performance of multiple symbol differential detection of PSK signals transmitted over correlated Rayleigh fading channels

A study is made of the error performance of multiple-symbol differential detection of uncoded PSK (phase shift keying) signals transmitted over correlated flat Rayleigh fading channels. It is found that the optimal detector uses a decoding metric which is a quadratic form of Gaussian variates. By using the characteristic function/residue theorem approach, the authors are able to derive an exact expression for the pairwise error event probability for the optimal detector. Subsequently, it is found that multiple-symbol differential detection is a very effective strategy for eliminating the irreducible error floor commonly associated with conventional differential detection. It is also found that the error performances of these detectors are not very sensitive to the mismatch between the decoding metric and the channel fading statistics.<<ETX>>

Variable rate speech and channel coding for mobile communication

Although the mobile communication channels are time-varying, most systems allocate the combined rate between the speech coder and error correction coder according to a nominal channel condition. This generally leads to a pessimistic design and consequently an inefficient utilization of the available resources, such as bandwidth and power. This paper describes an adaptive coding system that adjusts the rate allocation according to actual channel conditions. Two types of variable rate speech coders are considered : the embedded coders and the multimode coders and both are based on code excited linear prediction (CELP). On the other hand, the variable rate channel coders are based on the rate compatible punctured convolutional codes (RCPC). A channel estimator is used at the receiver to track both the short term and the long term fading condition in the channel. The estimated channel state information is then used to vary the rate allocation between the speech and the channel coder, on a frame by frame basis. This is achieved by sending an appropriate rate adjustment command through a feedback channel. Experimental results show that the objective and the subjective speech quality of the adaptive coders are superior than their non-adaptive counterparts. Improvements of up to 1.35 dB in SEGSNR of the speech signal and up to 0.9 in informal MOS for a combined rate of 12.8 kbit/s have been found. In addition, we found that the multimode coders perform better than their embedded counterparts.<<ETX>>

The effects of constellation density on trellis-coded modulation in fading channels

Dense constellations such as 16-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) have not seen much use in mobile communication because of their greater peak-to-average power ratio and their seemingly greater sensitivity to noise and channel interference. It is demonstrated that dense constellations can actually improve performance. Using a completely analytical method, three constellations are compared with the same net throughput of 2 bits/symbol: uncoded QPSK (quadrature phase-shift keying), rate 2/3 TCM (trellis-coded modulation) 8-PSK and rate 1/2 TCM 16-QAM. Comparison on the basis of average power puts TCM 16-QAM 5-dB ahead of TCM 8-PSK (phase-shift keying). Even comparison on the basis of peak power gives TCM 16-QAM a 2.44-dB advantage over TCM 8-PSK. QPSK is much poorer than either. >