The performance high density rectangular m-ary QAM modulation for broadband wireless communications

The implementation of high order modulation schemes in communications systems has a direct impact on throughput performance. The higher the order, the more bits per symbol can be transmitted. However, there is also an increase in the probability of error. In this paper we investigate the performance of high order rectangular quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for wireless broadband communications by simulating the bit error rate of 64 QAM, 256 QAM, and 1024 QAM in the presence of Rayleigh and Rician Channels with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Theoretical values of maximum achievable data rates for each order modulation are calculated and analyzed.