Performance of RS coded M-ary modulation with and without symbol overlapping

In this paper, we present analytical bit error probability results for M-ary modulation concatenated with Reed Solomon (RS) codes. The analysis of bit error probability is nontrivial as the number of bits per symbol for the RS codes may not be an integer multiple of the number of bits per symbol for a modulation symbol. We propose a Markov chain technique which allows analytical evaluation of the bit error probability for such cases. The performance of RS coding with coherent biorthogonal, coherent/non-coherent orthogonal modulation over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel is evaluated. Simulation of the bit error probability of RS code concatenated with a Nordstrom Robinson (NR) code as an inner code is performed and compared with the case of biorthogonal modulation. From the results, we notice that a stronger inner code gives better bit error probability. In addition, the throughput of the coded system with biorthogonal modulation over an AWGN channel is discussed. For a Rayleigh flat fading and block fading channel, we analyze the bit error probability of RS codes concatenated with biorthogonal modulation. From the result, we notice that a stronger outer code gives a better bit error probability for the case of Rayleigh flat fading channel.