Patent ID: 7221714

Claim:
A non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM (Parallel Concatenate Trellis Coded Modulation) code design method, the method comprising: for a trellis, identifying a fixed output state distribution and a plurality of fixed state transitions; for the trellis, identifying a corresponding input state distribution to support non-systematic and non-linear trellis encoding using the trellis; identifying a plurality of possible non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM encoders capable of performing the non-systematic and non-linear trellis encoding using the trellis according to the identified, corresponding input state distribution, the fixed output state distribution, and the plurality of fixed state transitions; for each non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM encoder of the plurality of possible non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM encoders, identifying a symbol mapper, operable to map output symbols to a corresponding constellation, that provides for a best performance in terms of a lowest BER (Bit Error Rate) for output bits that are grouped into the output symbols; determining the overall performance of each non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM encoder of the plurality of possible non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM encoders in terms of the E b /N 0 (ratio of energy per bit E b to the Spectral Noise Density N 0 ) waterfall parts and corresponding BERs; and selecting a non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM encoder of the plurality of possible non-systematic and non-linear PC-TCM encoders that provides the lowest E b /N 0 waterfall part with the lowest BER floor.