Design of adaptive bit interleaved TCM for Rayleigh fading channels

In this paper, we propose a bandwidth efficient error correction scheme, namely the variable rate adaptive bit-interleaved trellis coded modulation (ABICM), for wireless mobile channels. The code rate and modulation level are varied according to the current channel state to exploit the time-varying nature of the wireless channel. Design challenges to achieve symbol-by-symbol adaptation, component codes design, puncturing and interleaving design, adaptation thresholds determination are addressed. A multi-level puncturing scheme is proposed to tackle the problem of symbol-by-symbol adaptive puncturing and interleaving. We introduced the concept of equivalent distance spectrum for designing component codes of the ABICM system. Two operation modes, namely the constant throughput and the constant BER controls, are introduced. The design is illustrated with an example and it is found that there are significant gains relative to the fixed rate coding in terms of SNR and throughput. It is also found that the ABICM scheme is essentially not degraded in small interleaving depths. This makes the ABICM very suitable for real time applications