Combined coding and precoding for PAM and QAM HDSL systems

A system is described for high-speed digital subscriber line (HDSL) applications. It uses trellis coding combined with Tomlinson (1971) precoding. Theoretical performance results are provided for uncoded pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) assuming an ideal decision feedback equalizer (DFE) that includes an optimum feedforward filter. The similarities and differences in behavior are explained. It is shown that combined coding and Tomlinson precoding can achieve the equalization performance of the DFE and full coding gain of the trellis code. Simulation results are given to show that about 3.4 dB additional margin is obtained by using a four-dimensional eight-state trellis code. The receiver complexity is increased by it is quite manageable.