Coding for the Fading Channel: a Survey <s> Robust coding schemes <s> We address the problem of designing and analyzing the performance of a coded modulation scheme for the fading channel when space diversity is used. Under fairly general conditions, a channel affected by fading can be turned into an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel by increasing the number of diversity branches. Consequently, it can be expected (and is indeed verified by our analyses and simulations) that a coded modulation scheme designed to be optimal for the AWGN channel also will perform asymptotically well on a fading channel with diversity. This paper presents bounds on the bit-error probability of a system with coded modulation and diversity for space- and time-correlated Rician flat fading. Specifically, we derive a new method which allows evaluation of the pairwise error probability extremely easily, as well as accurately and computationally fast. The accuracy achieved improves considerably on the widely used, but rather loose Chernoff bound. Starting from this analysis, we study the asymptotic behavior of the fading channel with diversity as the number of diversity branches increases, and we address the effects of diversity on coded modulation performance and design criteria, including the effect on interleaver depth (which affects the total delay of the system). <s> BIB001 </s> Coding for the Fading Channel: a Survey <s> Robust coding schemes <s> For pt. I see ibid., vol.45, no.6, p.563-572, 1997. We study coded modulation with block differential detection in an arbitrarily correlated Rician fading channel with space diversity. Coded differential q-PSK is included in our analysis as a special case. A metric is chosen that is optimum for perfect interleaving, slow fading, and independent diversity branches. For slow fading, we compare the the cutoff rates of the channels resulting from different choices of block length N and diversity index M. Specifically, we show that block detection with diversity may or may not generate a better coding channel than usual differential detection, according to the code selected and the combination of values of M and N. In particular, for low-diversity orders (M=1,2) and for low-to-medium code rates, differential detection is still an optimal or near-optimal solution, while for high-diversity orders (M/spl ges/2) and medium-to-high code rates (up to uncoded modulation) block detection with N>2 can provide a significant gain. An error floor always exists when fading is fast. It decreases exponentially with the product of code diversity and space diversity, so that the latter emerges as a very effective technique for lowering the error floor of a system affected by fast fading. Performance examples based on actual coding schemes are also shown. <s> BIB002 </s> Coding for the Fading Channel: a Survey <s> Robust coding schemes <s> For pt.II see ibid., vol.45, no.6, p.55-67, 1997. In previous work, we have studied the impact of diversity on coded digital communication systems operating over fading channels. In particular, we have shown that diversity may be thought of as a way of making the channel more similar to a Gaussian one. The present paper extends this analysis to fading channels affected by co-channel interference (CCI). Three receiver models are examined, namely, with coherent detection and perfect channel-state information (CSI), with differential; and with pilot-tone detection. We study the effect of diversity on the irreducible error floor caused by CCI and fading, and the asymptotic behavior of the channel as the diversity order increases. Our results show that, when perfect CSI is available, diversity is able to turn asymptotically the channel into a CCI-free additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel with the same signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). On the other hand, differential and pilot-tone detection do not remove interference in the limit. Nevertheless, also with these detection schemes, diversity achieves significant gains when the SNR is large enough. Calculation of the channel cutoff rate provides guidelines for the design of coded systems with CCI in fading environments. A wide range of examples, validated by computer simulation, illustrates our conclusions. <s> BIB003
The design procedure described in the section above, and consisting of adapting the coding scheme to the channel, may suffer from a basic weakness. If the channel model is not stationary, as it is, for example, in a mobile-radio environment where it fluctuates in time between the extremes of Rayleigh and AWGN, then a code designed to be optimum for a fixed channel model might perform poorly when the channel varies. Therefore, a code optimal for the AWGN channel may be actually suboptimum for a substantial fraction of time. An alternative solution consists of doing the opposite, i.e., matching the channel to the coding scheme: the latter is still designed for a Gaussian channel, while the former is transformed from a Rayleigh-fading channel (say) into a Gaussian one. Here we shall examine three such robust solutions, the first based on antenna diversity, the second on bit-interleaving, and the third on power control. Fig. 3 shows the block diagram of the transmission scheme with fading. A source of cochannel interference is also added for completeness. Our initial assumptions, valid in the following unless otherwise stated, are BIB001 BIB002 BIB003 :