The scene is set by introducing the basic concepts including channel types and models, block and convolutional coding, channel capacity and decoding methods. The concepts are demonstrated on simple examples of block and convolutional codes. The principles of combined modulation and coding for Gaussian channels are outlined and illustrated by examples. It is shown how to represent block codes by trellises and how to construct block modulation codes. Wireless fading channels are characterized and described by statistical channel models.
Models are presents for a range of practical systems.
The difference in transmission over Gaussian and fading channels is emphasized and various techniques, which are effective for fading channels are introduced. The concepts of interleaving and concatenation are discussed. The difference of trellis code design for Gaussian and fading channels is explained. It is shown how to design trellis convolutional and block modulation codes for fading channels, how to implement decoders, how to perform interleaving and how to use the information about the channel in the decoding process. Advanced coding techniques, known as turbo codes, are presented and their performance on fading channels is demonstrated.