Complexity-reduced multilevel coding with rate-compatible punctured convolutional codes

摘要

A new coding design with large coding gains and complexity-reduced decoders is proposed. The coding strategy is based on a multilevel coding construction with rate-compatible punctured convolutional codes as building blocks. A new sub-optimal decoding is proposed where only one decoder using Viterbi algorithm is drafted. Typical example codes for quadrature amplitude shift keying (QASK) constellations an constructed and shown to outperform Ungerboeck's codes, but with higher decoding delay. Computer simulation is also performed to verify the results.