On the error probability of quasi‐orthogonal space–time block codes

In this paper, we derive the exact pairwise error probabilities (PEPs) of various quasi‐orthogonal space–time block codes (QO‐STBCs) using the moment generating function. By classifying the exact PEPs of QO‐STBCs into three types, we derive the closed‐form expression for each type of PEP. Based on these closed‐form expressions, we obtain the union bounds on the symbol error probability and bit error probability for QPSK modulation. Through simulation, it is shown that these union bounds are quite tight. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance bounds for trellis-coded modulation on time-dispersivechannels

The performance of trellis-coded modulation (TCM) on additive white Gaussian noise channels is well understood, and tight analytical bounds exist on the probability of the Viterbi decoder making a decision error. When a channel is also time-dispersive, the performance of TCM systems has been studied mainly by simulation. However, simulation is limited to symbol error probabilities greater than 10^-6 and is not a particularly useful tool for designing codes. Tight analytical bounds on the error probability of TCM on time-dispersive channels are required for a more thorough study of performance. Moreover, the design of good codes and optimum metrics for time-dispersive channels requires tight analytical bounds. In this paper we derive analytical upper bounds, which, although requiring numerical techniques for tractable evaluation, are tight for a wide range of time-dispersive channel conditions. The bounds are based on a union bound of error events that leads to a summation of pairwise error probabilities, which are themselves upper bounded     

nd-convolutional codes. I. Performance analysis

A noncoherent coded system, which incorporates convolutional codes in conjunction of multiple symbol noncoherent detection, is presented in this two-part paper, where Part I focuses on the performance analysis of the system and Part II deals with the structural properties of the underlying convolutional codes. These convolutional codes are referred to as nd-convolutional codes. It is shown that nd-convolutional codes provide a general framework for various noncoherent coding systems, including differential systems. Two models of the carrier phase are examined and the relationships between them is established. For the first one, the carrier phase remains constant for L channels signals, whereas for the second one, it unvaries throughout the transmission period. The regular structure of nd-codes facilitates the evaluation of a simple upper bound on the pairwise and bit error probabilities, as well as a simple expression for the generalized cutoff rate. The exponential rate of the error probability, which is the single parameter governing the error performance at large signal-to-noise ratios, is identified via large deviations techniques. This parameter leads to the interesting conclusion that increasing L does not necessarily monotonically improve the error performance of the noncoherent system. The same conclusion is reached by examining upper bounds and computer simulation results of several interesting examples. These examples also reveal that optimal codes for coherent detection are not necessarily optimal for noncoherent detection and a search for good codes, some of which are tabulated in Part II of the paper, is required     

An Exact Close-form PEP and a new PEP for Space-Time Codes in Rayleigh Fading Channels

A close-form expression for the exact Pair-wise Error Probability (PEP) of Space-Time (S-T) codes in Rayleigh fading channel is derived using the general and close-form solution for the probability-density function (PDF) of a sum of independent exponential distributed random variables. The expression requires evaluating the coefficients for partial fraction expansion, so an easy analytical way is proposed for doing this. The exact PEP is subsequently used to develop a simple PEP using the upper bound. Both PEPs are used in the Union bound for error rate evaluation. Numerical calculations and Monte Carlo computer simulation are used to study the accuracies of these Union bounds for error rate evaluation of a rotation-based diagonal S-T code (D code) in Rayleigh fading channels. Four other PEPs based on different bounds, i.e., the Chernoff bound, the asymptotic bound, the tight asymptotic bound, and the Eigen-Geometric-Mean (EGM) bound, are also studied for comparison. Results show that our derived close-form PEP is an exact PEP and our proposed PEP is a very tight bound to the exact PEP.     

A comparison of known codes, random codes, and the best codes

This paper calculates new bounds on the size of the performance gap between random codes and the best possible codes. The first result shows that, for large block sizes, the ratio of the error probability of a random code to the sphere-packing lower bound on the error probability of every code on the binary symmetric channel (BSC) is small for a wide range of useful crossover probabilities. Thus even far from capacity, random codes have nearly the same error performance as the best possible long codes. The paper also demonstrates that a small reduction k-k˜ in the number of information bits conveyed by a codeword will make the error performance of an (n,k˜) random code better than the sphere-packing lower bound for an (n,k) code as long as the channel crossover probability is somewhat greater than a critical probability. For example, the sphere-packing lower bound for a long (n,k), rate 1/2, code will exceed the error probability of an (n,k˜) random code if k-k˜>10 and the crossover probability is between 0.035 and 0.11=H^-1(1/2). Analogous results are presented for the binary erasure channel (BEC) and the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The paper also presents substantial numerical evaluation of the performance of random codes and existing standard lower bounds for the BEC, BSC, and the AWGN channel. These last results provide a useful standard against which to measure many popular codes including turbo codes, e.g., there exist turbo codes that perform within 0.6 dB of the bounds over a wide range of block lengths     

Error bounds for trellis-coded MPSK on a fading mobile satellitechannel

Analytical performance bounds are presented for trellis-coded MPSK, transmitted over a satellite-based land mobile channel. Upper bounds are evaluated using the well-known transfer function bounding technique, and lower bounds are achieved through knowledge of exact pairwise error probabilities. In order to analyze practical trellis-codes (four or more states), the uniform properties displayed by a certain class of trellis-codes are exploited, enabling the encoder transfer function to be obtained from a modified state transition diagram, having no more states than the encoder itself. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented in confirmation of all performance bounds and indicate a general weakness in the transfer function upper bounds. A new asymptotically tight upper bound is derived based on a simple modification to the standard transfer function bound, and results are presented for the four- and eight-state trellis-codes in Rician and Rayleigh fading     

Upper bounds to error probabilities of coded systems beyond the cutoff rate

A family of upper bounds to error probabilities of coded systems was recently proposed by D. Divsalar (see IEEE Communication Theory Workshop, 1999; JPL TMO Prog. Rep. 42-139, 1999). These bounds are valid for transmission over the additive white Gaussian noise channel, and require only the knowledge of the weight spectrum of the code words. After illustrating these bounds, we extend them to fading channels. Contrary to the union bound, our bounds maintain their effectiveness below the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the cutoff rate of the channel equals the rate of the code. Some applications are shown. First, we derive upper bounds to the minimum SNR necessary to achieve zero error probability as the code block length increases to infinity. Next, we use our bounds to predict the performance of turbo codes and low-density parity-check codes.     

Composition bounds for channel block codes

The performance of Channel block codes for a general channel is studied by examining the relationship between the rate of a code, the joint composition of pairs of codewords, and the probability of decoding error. At fixed rate, lower bounds and upper bounds, both on minimum Bhattacharyya distance between codewords and on minimum equivocation distance between codewords, are derived. These bounds resemble, respectively, the Gilbert and the Elias bounds on the minimum Hamming distance between codewords. For a certain large class of channels, a lower bound on probability of decoding error for low-rate channel codes is derived as a consequence of the upper bound on Bhattacharyya distance. This bound is always asymptotically tight at zero rate. Further, for some channels, it is asymptotically tighter than the straight line bound at low rates. Also studied is the relationship between the bounds on codeword composition for arbitrary alphabets and the expurgated bound for arbitrary channels having zero error capacity equal to zero. In particular, it is shown that the expurgated reliability-rate function for blocks of letters is achieved by a product distribution whenever it is achieved by a block probability distribution with strictly positive components.     

On improved bounds on the decoding error probability of block codesover interleaved fading channels, with applications to turbo-like codes

We derive here improved upper bounds on the decoding error probability of block codes which are transmitted over fully interleaved Rician fading channels, coherently detected and maximum-likelihood (ML) decoded. We assume that the fading coefficients during each symbol are statistically independent (due to a perfect channel interleaver), and that perfect estimates of these fading coefficients are provided to the receiver. The improved upper bounds on the block and bit error probabilities are derived for fully interleaved fading channels with various orders of space diversity, and are found by generalizing some previously introduced upper bounds for the binary-input additive white Gaussian nose (AWGN) channel. The advantage of these bounds over the ubiquitous union bound is demonstrated for some ensembles of turbo codes and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, and it is especially pronounced in a portion of the rate region exceeding the cutoff rate. Our generalization of the Duman and Salehi bound (Duman and Salehi 1998, Duman 1998) which is based on certain variations of Gallager's (1965) bounding technique, is demonstrated to be the tightest reported upper bound. We therefore apply it to calculate numerically upper bounds on the thresholds of some ensembles of turbo-like codes, referring to the optimal ML decoding. For certain ensembles of uniformly interleaved turbo codes, the upper bounds derived here also indicate good match with computer simulation results of efficient iterative decoding algorithms     

Coding and signal space diversity for a class of fading and impulsive noise channels

The transmission over the Gaussian mixture noise channel with perfect channel state information at the receiver side is considered. Lower and upper bounds on the achievable pairwise error probability (PEP) are derived for finite and infinite codeword lengths. It is shown that diversity codes, i.e., unitary transforms, can be applied to achieve a diversity gain. A large class of diversity codes is determined for which-if the codeword length is increased-the PEP between any two codewords approaches either zero or the lower bound on the PEP.     

New tight bounds on the pairwise error probability for unitary space-time modulations

We present two upper bounds and one lower bound on the pairwise error probability (PEP) of unitary space-time modulation (USTM) over the Rayleigh fading channel. The two new upper bounds are the tightest so far, and the new lower bound is the tightest at low signal-to-noise ratio. Some implications for USTM constellation design are also pointed out.     

On the redundancy of optimal binary prefix-condition codes for finite and infinite sources (Corresp.)

A new lower bound, which is the tightest possible, is obtained for the redundancy of optimal bimuy prefix-condition (OBPC) codes for a memoryless source for which the probability of the most likely source letter is known. It is shown that this bound, and upper bounds obtained by Gallager and Johnsen, hold for infinite as well as finite source alphabets. Also presented are bounds on the redundancy of OBPC codes for sources satisfying the condition that each of the first several probabilities in the list of source probabilities is sufficiently large relative to the sum of the remaining probabilities.     

Tightened Upper Bounds on the ML Decoding Error Probability of Binary Linear Block Codes

The performance of maximum-likelihood (ML) decoded binary linear block codes is addressed via the derivation of tightened upper bounds on their decoding error probability. The upper bounds on the block and bit error probabilities are valid for any memoryless, binary-input and output-symmetric communication channel, and their effectiveness is exemplified for various ensembles of turbo-like codes over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. An expurgation of the distance spectrum of binary linear block codes further tightens the resulting upper bounds     

Performance bounds for coded free-space optical communications through atmospheric turbulence channels

Error-control codes can help to mitigate atmospheric turbulence-induced signal fading in free-space optical communication links using intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD). Error performance bound analysis can yield simple analytical upper bounds or approximations to the bit-error probability. We first derive an upper bound on the pairwise codeword-error probability for transmission through channels with correlated turbulence-induced fading, which involves complicated multidimensional integration. To simplify the computations, we derive an approximate upper bound under the assumption of weak turbulence. The accuracy of this approximation under weak turbulence is verified by numerical simulation. Its invalidity when applied to strong turbulence is also shown. This simple approximate upper bound to the pairwise codeword-error probability is then applied to derive an upper bound to the bit-error probability for block codes, convolutional codes, and turbo codes for free-space optical communication through weak atmospheric turbulence channels. We also discuss the choice of interleaver length in block codes and turbo codes based on numerical evaluation of our performance bounds.     

Combined coding and modulation: theory and applications

The theoretical aspects of the encoding process are investigated, resulting in a precise definition of linear codes together with theorems that clarify how they can be obtained. A particular subset of linear codes, called superlinear codes, for which the performance analysis is highly simplified is identified. The most relevant performance measures for the analysis of this class of codes are discussed. The minimum Euclidean distance and the event and bit error probabilities are found analytically using the uniform error property (when applicable) or variations on it. This yields accurate upper and lower bounds to the error rate at the price of reasonable computational complexity. The theory is then applied to the search for `good' codes and to their performance evaluation. The cases of 16- and 32-PSK codes, which are good candidates for use in digital satellite transmission, are considered. Several new results in terms of error event and bit error probabilities are presented, showing considerable gains in terms of SNR with respect to the uncoded case     

Performance Analysis of Maximum-Likelihood Multiuser Detection in Space–Time-Coded CDMA With Imperfect Channel Estimation

In this paper, the performance of maximum-likelihood multiuser detection in space-time-coded code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems with imperfect channel estimation is analyzed. A K-user synchronous CDMA system that employs orthogonal space-time block codes with M transmit antennas and N receive antennas is considered. A least-squares estimate of the channel matrix is obtained by sending a sequence of pilot bits from each user. The channel matrix is perturbed by an error matrix that depends on the thermal noise and the correlation between the signature waveforms of different users. Because of the linearity of the channel estimation technique, the characteristic function of the decision variable is used to obtain an exact expression for the pairwise error probability, and by using it, an upper bound on the bit error rate (BER) is obtained. The analytical BER bounds are compared with the BER obtained through simulations. The BER bounds are shown to be increasingly tight for large SNR values. It is shown that the degradation in BER performance due to imperfect channel estimation can be compensated by using a larger number of transmit/receive antennas     

Distance spectra and performance bounds of space-time trellis codes over quasistatic fading channels

This correspondence presents a general approach to upper bounding coded system performance over quasistatic fading channels (QSFC). This approach has the advantage of yielding a closed-form upper bound that converge for all signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The proposed approach is used to upper-bound the performance of space-time trellis codes (STTC) over QSFCs. The resulting upper bounds for STTCs are better adapted to the QSFC and present an improvement over worst case pairwise error probability (PEP) analysis used so far. In its second part, this correspondence investigates several ways to reduce the complexity of computing the distance spectrum of STTCs. The combined result obtained from using the new upper bounds and the computed distance spectra are shown to be close to simulated performance for all SNRs.     

Tools for Performance Analysis and Design of Space–Time Block Codes

Space-time block codes (STBCs) have attracted recent interest due to their ability to take advantage of both space and time diversity to reliably transmit data over a wireless fading channel. In many cases, their design is based on asymptotically tight performance criteria, such as the worst-case pairwise error probability (PEP) or the union bound. However, these quantities fail to give an accurate performance picture, especially at low signal-to-noise ratio, because the classical union bound is known to be loose in this case. This paper develops tighter performance criteria for STBCs which yield considerably better bounds. First, the union bound is developed as the average of the exact PEPs. By noting that some of the terms in the bound are redundant, a second bound is obtained by expurgation. Since this still yields a loose bound, a tighter bound, denoted as the progressive union bound (PUB), is obtained. Because the PUB cannot be computed in closed form, in its most general case, and to avoid computing a high-dimensional numerical integration, its saddlepoint approximation is developed. In addition to the significant improvement of the PUB analysis over other bounding methods, it is also shown that codes designed to optimize the PUB can perform better than those obtained by the looser criteria     

Error rate performance of coded free-space optical links over strong turbulence channels

Error control coding can be used over free-space optical (FSO) links to mitigate turbulence-induced fading. We present error rate performance bounds for coded FSO communication systems operating over atmospheric turbulence channels, which are modeled as a correlated K distribution under strong turbulence conditions. We derive an upper bound on the pairwise error probability (PEP) and then apply the union-bound technique in conjunction with the derived PEP to obtain upper bounds on the bit error rate. Simulation results are further demonstrated to verify the analytical results.