Combined coding and modulation for wireless communication using multidimensional PSK signal constellations

Combined coding and modulation or trellis coding techniques offer the potential for significant coding gains with little or no bandwidth expansion. Although the combination of spectral and energy efficiency make trellis codes potentially useful for terrestrial wireless systems, they have not been widely deployed due to the hostile multipath fading channel. This paper examines several approaches to trellis coding for wireless communications. One technique which holds promise is the use of multidimensional PSK signal constellations. The authors examine the performance of multidimensional PSK for the wireless channel using both analytic and simulation techniques. Results show that when compared to two dimensional PSK, some improvements in bandwidth efficiency are possible at the expense of some energy efficiency