Exact pairwise error probability of space-time codes

We describe a simple technique for the numerical calculation, within any desired degree of accuracy, of the pairwise error probability (PEP) of space-time codes over fading channels. This method applies also to the calculation of E[Q(√ξ)] for any nonnegative random variable ξ whose moment-generating function Φ_ξ(s)=E[exp(-sξ)] is known. Its application to the multiple antenna independent Rayleigh-fading channel and to the Rayleigh block fading channel is discussed, and illustrated by two simple examples     

Linear block codes over cyclic groups

The main building block for the construction of a geometrically uniform coded modulation scheme is a subgroup of G^I, where G is a group generating a low-dimensional signal constellation and I is an index set. In this paper we study the properties of these subgroups when G is cyclic. We exploit the fact that any cyclic group of q elements is isomorphic to the additive group of Z_q (the ring of integers modulo q) so that we can make use of concepts related to linearity. Our attention is focused mainly on indecomposable cyclic groups (i.e., of prime power order), since they are the elementary “building blocks” of any abelian group. In analogy with the usual construction of linear codes over fields, we define a generator matrix and a parity check matrix. Trellis construction and bounds on the minimum Euclidean distance are also investigated. Some examples of coded modulation schemes based on this theory are also exhibited, and their performance evaluated     

Performance of space-time codes for a large number of antennas

We study the asymptotic behavior of space-time codes when the number of transmit and receive antennas grows to infinity. Specifically, we determine the behavior of pairwise error probabilities with maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding and with three types of receiver interfaces: the ML interface, the linear zero-forcing (ZF) interface, and the linear minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) interface. Two situations are studied: when the number of receiving antennas grows to infinity while the number of transmitting antennas is finite, and when both numbers grow to infinity but their ratio remains constant. We show that with ML or linear interfaces the asymptotic performance of space-time codes is determined by the Euclidean distances between codewords. Moreover, with the two linear interfaces examined here the number r of receive antennas must be much larger than the number t of transmit antennas to avoid a sizeable loss of performance; on the other hand, when r ≫ t, the performance of these linear interfaces comes close to that of ML. The dependence of error probabilities on Euclidean distance is valid for intermediate signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) even when the number of antennas is small. Simulations validate our theoretical findings, and show how asymptotic results may be substantially valid even in a nonasymptotic regime: thus, even for few antennas, off-the-shelf codes may outperform space-time codes designed ad hoc     

Parallel demodulation of multidimensional signals

The design of constellations that allow a high degree of parallelism in the staged decoder structure and in addition allow soft decoding of the component algebraic codes based on a systolic algorithm amenable to VLSI implementation is considered. Combination of these multidimensional constellations with trellis-coded modulation (TCM) is also considered. Set partitioning is based on the partition of a linear code into a subcode and its cosets, and the author shows that a highly parallel demodulator structure can also be applied when TCM is used     

Modulation and coding for mobile radio communications: channelswith correlated Rice fading and Doppler frequency shift

We discuss the relative performance of coherent phase-shift keying (PSK), differential PSK (DPSK), and double differential PSK (DDPSK) modulation schemes over a mobile radio channel in which transmission is affected by additive noise, a constant carrier phase offset, a constant Doppler frequency shift, and correlated Rice fading. We first compare the performance of these schemes to assess the amount of degradation caused on each one of them by fading. Among our findings, we observe that DDPSK turns out to be less sensitive to the effects of correlated fading than the other two schemes and that in these conditions interleaving may not be beneficial. We then consider the introduction of trellis-coded modulation (TCM). The system we advocate as offering the best tradeoff between performance and complexity with the channel model assumed here includes double-differential encoding, differential detection, an open-loop Doppler phase tracking circuit, and differential decoding in addition to a simple TCM scheme     

Doppler frequency shift estimation for differentially coherent CPM

A communication scheme based on continuous-phase modulated (CPM) signals used in conjunction with trellis-coded modulation (TCM) is considered. To keep the complexity manageable, a detection scheme based on differential detection of CPM signals is used. Methods that estimate the Doppler-induced frequency shift from the receiver signal are studied. Since differential detection transforms a frequency shift into a phase shift, the phase estimation problem is examined first. Three Doppler frequency estimation schemes that are based on open-loop structures and that are designed to achieve different ranges of Doppler frequencies that can be estimated are introduced. These estimators show different degrees of complexity and (at least for high signal-to-noise ratios) significantly different estimation errors. Their performance is compared by using a simulation approach     

Some reflections on scholarly reviewing - [commentary]

In the last few years, we have been facing a paradigm shift in scholarly publishing, due to the easy availability of scholarly work online, added to a substantial increase in the number of conferences, workshops, and seminars which publish their own proceedings. As one effect, new results are made available to scientists in a short time after their generation, which might lead to the conclusion that scholarly peer-reviewed publications, which suffer from a substantial time lag from submission to publication, have exhausted their role. We, however, do not believe that the role of these publications is being diminished, let alone exhausted. On the contrary, it will increasingly be that of providing a ?quality stamp? to the best scientific results available, in contrast to the other, ?read at own risk? sources. At the same time, to meet the challenge it is necessary, among other things, that the time elapsing from the generation of a result to its availability by the scientific community not be too long. This can help to avoid spreading results of dubious importance or accuracy, and to prevent the results themselves from being served after their freshness has faded.     

Co-Channel Interference in Cellular Mobile Radio Systems with Coded PSK and Diversity

In this paper, the performance of coding and diversity in narrowband wireless cellular systems affected by fading, shadowing and co-channel interference is analyzed. We consider low-order diversity, that can be practically realized for both coherent and differential phase shift keying. We assume that the shadowing random processes affecting all transmitted signals do not vary appreciably over the transmission duration. Fading, on the contrary, is assumed to vary more rapidly. Our main focus here is on outage probability. After choosing a performance indicator, its expectation is taken with respect to fading and co-channel interference, conditionally on shadowing. Hence, the resulting average performance indicator is a random variable. The probability that this random variable exceeds a specified threshold defines the outage probability. We consider as performance indicators (i) the channel cut-off rate R₀ and (ii) the bit error rate P_b of an actual coded scheme. As we are interested in interference-limited, rather than power-limited systems, we evaluate both R₀ and P_b for very high signal-to-noise ratios. Results are parameterized by the frequency reuse factor and the diversity order.     

Joint source and channel coding using turbo codes over rings

Turbo codes are a practical solution for achieving large coding gains. We present a new turbo coding scheme where the component codes are convolutional codes (CCs) over the ring of integers modulo M, with M being the alphabet size of the source encoder. The a priori knowledge of the source statistics is used during the iterative decoding procedure for improved decoder performance. As an example of application, we examine differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) encoded image transmission