Patent ID: 7630453

Claim:
An N-ary modulation method comprising the step of associating a binary signal, a bit length thereof being n, with N-ary signals arranged in first and second phase planes respectively for transmission, wherein N is not a number belonging to powers of 2 but is a number belonging to a series beginning from 3 and sequentially doubled, that is, any one of 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, . . . , and wherein n is such that, if the bit length n is 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, . . . , the number N is 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, . . . , respectively, said method further comprising the step of associating, by an N-ary modulation system, in allocating three bits, out of said n bits, of said binary signal to two digits of ternary signals, said three-bit binary signal with said two digits of ternary signals, so as to substantially minimize the average error rate of respective bits of the three-bit binary signal against all errors with the Lee distance of 1 of said two digits of ternary signals.