A decision-theoretic approach to the generation of side information in frequency-hop multiple-access communications

The use of side information can provide increased coding gains in frequency-hop multiple-access communication systems. The internal generation of this side information by the receiver is investigated in the paper. Methods to determine which received signals to erase prior to decoding are derived from Bayesian decision theory. The performance of synchronous and asynchronous frequency-hop systems with Reed-Solomon coding is analyzed for channels with Rayleigh fading, multiple-access interference, and wideband Gaussian noise. The performance of the Bayesian technique is compared with that of receivers that make erasure decisions using the Viterbi ratio-threshold test. The Bayesian method is found to provide better performance.<>