Convolutionally encoded phase-shift-key modulation for multimedia multicast transmission in mobile wireless networks

In a wireless communication network it is often necessary to transmit one or more messages to multiple destinations, Some of the intended recipients may be more capable than others in the sense that their communication links from the transmitter have less interference, fading, or attenuation. We have previously proposed modulation techniques that allow a transmitter to deliver a basic level of information to all of the intended receivers and additional information to the more capable receivers. In this paper, convolutional coding is applied to the multicast modulation system to provide greater efficiency. Performance results and tradeoffs are presented for convolutionally encoded coherent M-ary phase-shift-key multicast transmissions. For the code and modulation considered in this paper, we show that error-control coding should not be applied to the additional information for network-traffic that can tolerate a probability of bit error greater than 10^-4, such as voice traffic. Error-control coding should be applied to the additional information for network traffic that requires a probability of bit error less than 10^-4