Lyons, M. T. | Engineering Papers

NASA NTRS1985

16-QAM and trellis-coded 16-QAM on nonlinear channels

The use of 16-QAM on bandlimited nonlinear satellite channels, in uncoded and trellis-coded form, for bandwidth efficient modulation (ideally 4 bps/Hz) is discussed. To avoid severe degradation due to AM/AM and AM/PM distortion, or to avoid the need for large back-off, predistorting the 16-QAM constellation at the modulator is considered. Performance for varying back-off settings for uncoded and coded 16-QAM is simulated, and it is found that the four-state trellis code has a coding gain of about 8 dB, larger than expected based on linear channel analysis, while the 16-state code gains only marginally beyond this.

Lyons, M. T.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Rate 3/4 convolutional coding of 16-PSK - Code design and performance study

Convolutional coding coupled with 16-PSK modulation is investigated for bandwidth efficient transmission. Rate 3/4, small memory codes are found which are optimized in the free-distance sense on the Gaussian channel. These codes provide up to 4.8 dB of coding gain with 32 states over uncoded 8-PSK, a scheme having the same spectral efficiency as the codes described. The performance is compared with earlier findings of Ungerboeck and some recent results on R = 2/3 coded 8-PSK. In addition, results of a channel transmission study to assess the performance of the four-state code on the band-limited nonlinear channel are presented, and it is found that performance of the coded scheme degrades comparably with uncoded 8-PSK, i.e., coding gain is roughly preserved.

Wilson, S. G.↗