The design and performance of a class of practical rate 2/3, 8-PSK block-coded modulation (BCM) (also referred to as multilevel modulation codes) schemes are presented. These BCM schemes utilise both convolutional codes and block codes, and have block lengths that are matched with relatively short packet lengths to satisfy requirements in packet-wireless networks. Decoding issues such as optimum signal metrics and soft-decision decoding of block codes are addressed. The performance is evaluated and simulated. It is found that these BCM schemes exhibit a coding gain comparable to 16, 32 and 64 state Ungerboeck (1982) TCM codes, but require less complexity to decode
