Space-time coding techniques with bit-interleaved coded modulations for MIMO block-fading channels

The space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation (ST-BICM) is an efficient technique to obtain high diversity and coding gain on a block-fading MIMO channel. Its maximum-likelihood (ML) performance is computed under ideal interleaving conditions, which enables a global optimization taking into account channel coding. Thanks to a diversity upperbound derived from the Singleton bound, an appropriate choice of the time dimension of the space-time coding is possible, which maximizes diversity while minimizing complexity. Based on the analysis, an optimized interleaver and a set of linear precoders, called dispersive nucleo algebraic (DNA) precoders are proposed. The proposed precoders have good performance with respect to the state of the art and exist for any number of transmit antennas and any time dimension. With turbo codes, they exhibit a frame error rate which does not increase with frame length.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Trans. on Information Theory, Submission: January 2006 - First review: June 200

Towards Fully Optimized BICM Transceivers

Bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) transceivers often use equally spaced constellations and a random interleaver. In this paper, we propose a new BICM design, which considers hierarchical (nonequally spaced) constellations, a bit-level multiplexer, and multiple interleavers. It is shown that this new scheme increases the degrees of freedom that can be exploited in order to improve its performance. Analytical bounds on the bit error rate (BER) of the system in terms of the constellation parameters and the multiplexing rules are developed for the additive white Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and Nakagami-$m$ fading channels. These bounds are then used to design the BICM transceiver. Numerical results show that, compared to conventional BICM designs, and for a target BER of $10^{-6}$, gains up to 3 dB in the AWGN channel are obtained. For fading channels, the gains depend on the fading parameter, and reach 2 dB for a target BER of $10^{-7}$ and $m=5$.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Communication

On BICM receivers for TCM transmission

Recent results have shown that the performance of bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) using convolutional codes in nonfading channels can be significantly improved when the interleaver takes a trivial form (BICM-T), i.e., when it does not interleave the bits at all. In this paper, we give a formal explanation for these results and show that BICM-T is in fact the combination of a TCM transmitter and a BICM receiver. To predict the performance of BICM-T, a new type of distance spectrum for convolutional codes is introduced, analytical bounds based on this spectrum are developed, and asymptotic approximations are also presented. It is shown that the minimum distance of the code is not the relevant optimization criterion for BICM-T. Optimal convolutional codes for different constrain lengths are tabulated and asymptotic gains of about 2 dB are obtained. These gains are found to be the same as those obtained by Ungerboeck's one-dimensional trellis coded modulation (1D-TCM), and therefore, in nonfading channels, BICM-T is shown to be asymptotically as good as 1D-TCM.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Communication

Unequal Error Protection in BICM with QAM Constellations: Interleaver and Code Design

In this paper we present a general methodology for the interleaver and code design for QAM-based BICM transmissions. We develop analytical bounds on the bit error rate and we use them to predict the performance of BICM when unequal error protection (UEP) is introduced by the constellation labeling. Based on these bounds, the optimum design of interleaver and code is presented. The improvements obtained reached 2~dB for the analyzed cases, and are obtained without complexity increase. Although previous works noted the influence of the interleaver design and the UEP, to the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze formally this problem for BICM transmissions

Jointly optimised iterative source-coding, channel-coding and modulation for transmission over wireless channels

Joint source-coding, channel-coding and modulation schemes based on Variable Length Codes (VLCs), Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM), Turbo TCM (TTCM), Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation (BICM) and iteratively decoded BICM (BICM-ID) schemes are proposed. A significant coding gain is achieved without bandwidth expansion, when exchanging information between the VLC and the coded modulation decoders with the advent of iterative decoding. With the aid of using independent interleavers for the In-phase and Quadrature phase components of the complex-valued constellation, further diversity gain may be achieved. The performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated over both AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels. Explicitly, at BER = 10-5 most of the proposed schemes have BER curves less than one-dB away from the channel capacity limit

Three-Dimensional EXIT Chart Analysis of Iterative Detection Aided Coded Modulation Schemes

The iterative convergence of iteratively detected coded modulation schemes having different block lengths, decoding complexity and an unequal error protection capability is studied, when communicating over AWGNchannels using 8PSK modulation. More specifically, the coded modulation schemes investigated include Multilevel Coding (MLC), Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM), Turbo Trellis Coded Modulation (TTCM), Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation (BICM) as well as Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation employing Iterative Decoding (BICM-ID). A novel three dimensional EXIT chart was introduced for studying the iterative convergence behaviour of the Multistage Decoding (MSD) scheme used in MLC

On the BICM Capacity

Optimal binary labelings, input distributions, and input alphabets are analyzed for the so-called bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) capacity, paying special attention to the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. For 8-ary pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and for 0.75 bit/symbol, the folded binary code results in a higher capacity than the binary reflected gray code (BRGC) and the natural binary code (NBC). The 1 dB gap between the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) capacity and the BICM capacity with the BRGC can be almost completely removed if the input symbol distribution is properly selected. First-order asymptotics of the BICM capacity for arbitrary input alphabets and distributions, dimensions, mean, variance, and binary labeling are developed. These asymptotics are used to define first-order optimal (FOO) constellations for BICM, i.e. constellations that make BICM achieve the Shannon limit -1.59 \tr{dB}. It is shown that the \Eb/N_0 required for reliable transmission at asymptotically low rates in BICM can be as high as infinity, that for uniform input distributions and 8-PAM there are only 72 classes of binary labelings with a different first-order asymptotic behavior, and that this number is reduced to only 26 for 8-ary phase shift keying (PSK). A general answer to the question of FOO constellations for BICM is also given: using the Hadamard transform, it is found that for uniform input distributions, a constellation for BICM is FOO if and only if it is a linear projection of a hypercube. A constellation based on PAM or quadrature amplitude modulation input alphabets is FOO if and only if they are labeled by the NBC; if the constellation is based on PSK input alphabets instead, it can never be FOO if the input alphabet has more than four points, regardless of the labeling.Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theor