Hierarchical hexagonal modulation with ternary symbols for wireless video transmission

Wireless video transmission systems have been widely adopted to facilitate the ubiquitous access of the multimedia services on the Internet. However, wireless links are not stable and the channel quality might vary with time. Efficient modulation scheme plays an important role to improve the quality of service (QoS) of video transmission. However, the previous efforts mainly focused on the rectangular constellation to carry coded information bits. In this paper, we go beyond the existing research efforts and bring non-binary communication and the hexagonal modulation together with a hybrid structure which can be compatible with the existing systems, and show by both prototyping and simulation their efficacy in wireless communication systems with varying channel conditions. For video applications requiring differentiated services, we further design hierarchical hexagonal modulation. The new cross-layer approach offers a new dimension in the pursuit of squeezing more out of the limited energy and spectrum resources in supporting wireless video applications.