A novel rate allocation method for multilevel coded modulation

We present a new rate allocation scheme for multilevel coded modulation based on the minimization of the total block error rate (BLER). The proposed method uses affine code components and hard decision multistage decoding. Exhaustive search for the rate allocation which minimizes the total BLER justifies the near-optimum performance of the introduced method in moderate to high SNRs. Compared to previous approaches this new rate allocation scheme can improve the performance of the system by 1 dB at BLER = 10^-6 for 16-QAM with Ungerboeck set partitioning. Interestingly, our results indicate that the optimum rate allocation is a function of the SNR. Finally, the performance of some specific codes are evaluated by simulation and union bounds to verify the theoretical results.