BER Performance Analysis using TCM Coding

Over AWGN and Fading Channels

Sana Ahmed Abdaljlil Amer R. Zerek Amer Daeri
Faculty of Engineering, Sabratha Faculty of Engineering, Zawia Faculty of Engineering, Zawia
University University University
Sabratha, Libya Zawia Libya Zawia Libya
Sana1985113@gmail.com a.zerek@zu.edu.ly amer.daeri@zu.edu.ly

Hend Eissa
Engineering College of Electronic
Technology
Tripoli, Libya
namarek2010@gmail.com

Abstract— The demands for wireless communication
with high data rate is required in many data communication
systems. In the most of wireless communications many
researches focus on evaluating and improving the systems for
high data rate services and spectral efficiency that satisfy
higher number of users and better channel capacity
requirements. The channel capacity (bandwidth), modulation
scheme and coding techniques are the key parameters for
evaluating system performance with an improved data rate
without increasing the channel bandwidth (Bit/Hz,) which can
be achieved for wireless system using orthogonal space-time
block code (OSTBC) with recent Multi-Input Multi- Output
(MIMO) Systems.
This paper focuses on evaluating the performance of the 8-
PSK modulation scheme with and without applying the
trellis-coded modulation (TCM) coding technique over
AWGN, Rayleigh and Rician channels using Multi Input
Multi Output (MIMO system to achieve a reasonable Bit
Error Rate (BER) performance while the proposed system
implements multi antenna diversity of 2x3, where the
transmitter antennas are two and the receiver antennas are
three.
The achieved simulation results in both cases of 8-PSK with
and without applying the TCM indicated that a more Eb/No
energy is need for the 8-PSK without applying the TCM to get
the same BER compared to 8-PSK with TCM coding. Therefore,
applying this coding technique improved the performance on
average by about 3 dB.
Keywords— OSTBC, MIMO, BER, TCM and Fading.
I. INTRODUCTION
The OSTBC is designed with the ability to provide full
diversity gain without knowledge of channel state
information (CSI) at the transmission system, this
advantage enhanced the security with the expense of
increasing the complexity of the design. The requirement
for reliability with higher data rate widely considered in
the wireless communications which can be provided
with the diversity introduced in MIMO systems. [1, 2].
The data rate in MIMO can be enhanced with using
special coding schemes such as TCM with quadrature
phase shift keying QPSK while reliability is enhanced
further by the OSTBC with its diversity technique with
main problems and challenges in wireless
communication over fading channels and limited
bandwidth. The OSTBC have been employed in MIMO
by using maximum like-hood (ML) technique with TCM
modulation.
In this work the intension is to analyse the performance
of OSTBC with TCM using 8-PSK modulation scheme
in terms of bit error rate (BER) versus Eb/No over
additive white gaussian noise (AWGN) and fading
communication channels [3].
II. OSTBC SYSTEM
OSTBC is designed based on two schemes, general
form or simple OSTBC Alamouti scheme to achieve full
diversity gain is shown in Fig.1.
Bernoulli Binary 8-PSK
Data Source Modulator
Fading
Channel
AWGN
Bernoulli Binary 8-PSK
Data Sink Demodulator
Fig 1 Block diagram for MIMO OSTBC system
MIMO can be defined as an antenna technology for wireless
communication in which several antennas are used on both
sides of the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx). This system
uses mth antennas at the transmitter (mT) and n antennas at the
receiver (nR) i.e. (mT × nR) as shown in Fig.2 and there is a
communication channel between both transmitting and
receiving antennas. But in this paper, the MIMO system is 2
transmitting antennas and 3 receiving antennas i.e (2×3)
MIMO system. [4, 5].
Generally, the MIMO system is used to obtain a better
overall throughput of the wireless link. But there are other
types of MIMO such as Multi Input Single Output (MISO),
Single Input Multi Output (SIMO) and Single Input Single
Output (SISO) channels.. Although MIMO channels offer Where Tx is transmitted symbols matrix, and at receiver
many advantages over their systems such as reduced fading the received vector is given as :
effects, they provide high quality of service with increased
spectral efficiency and data rates, and they help achieve y=sh+z (2)
reduction in bit error rate and higher data rate can be Where y is the received vector and h is channel
achieved...etc. . But it suffers from some disadvantages like vector and z is the noise vector, if we represent the
high cost, increased resource requirement and hardware received vectors for a MISO system as matrix
complexity and increased power requirement for hardware representation for two transmitted and one received
resources while battery is drained very fast due to complex antenna
calculation process and so on.

 y11  h 11 h21  s1  z1 

      
      
s1 h11 y1          (3)
      
1 h21 1  y 22  h *21 h *11    
h21     s 2  z 2 
y2
s2 h22 Where y11, y12…Ynm at receiver considered to be the
Transmitter

Receiver

.. ..
2 2 received symbols corresponding to transmission time
h1m hn1 slots between transmitters and receiver, h11 is the
. yn
. channel vector from 1st transmit antenna (TX1) to 1st
receive antenna(RX1), for 2x2 antennas system at receiver
sm
hnm it has :
m n

  h 11 h 12 
 y 11  z 11 
Fig.2 . MIMO, n x m transmission system Model    
    s 1  
  
h 21 h 22    z 21 
 y 21      
As an example for MIMO channel with 2 transmitting     
    (4)
and 3 receiveing antennas, the simple diversity   h *12 - h 11     * 
transmission form of two antennas for Alamouti code is       z 12 
 y *12    s 2  
given as:[6-9].   
   * 
 *  h * 22 - h * 21 z 22 
 y 22   

Time Where h12 is the channel vector from 1st Tx antenna to 2nd Rx
s1 s2  antenna and so on h21 is the channel from second 2nd transmit
  antenna to 1st receive antenna. z11..,znm are the considered as the
Tx   
(1)

 s* 2 s*1  added noise for corresponding target channels.


Where Tx is symbol matrix of Alamouti scheme for
two antennas. Alamouti OSTBC is designed basically
for two transmission antennas and code rate equal to one.
The generalized OSTBC use more than two antennas and
code rate to be less than one. With fixed number of
received antennas and increasing the number of antennas
at transmitter. In Alamouti the symbols send as of two
groups. The Tx in Alamouti matrix code which
distributed along the time and space, it is considered as
a special case of general OSTBC at specific rate.
The first symbols S1 and S2 are transmitted from first
antennas as first time slot and in the second time slot
antennas send -S2* and S1* and so on. This diversity
technique is improving the performance of the studied
system over fading channel in terms of BER at different
levels of SNR.
III. TRELLIS CODED MODULATION
Trellis coded modulation (TCM) provides efficient
modulation transmission performance with achieved high
coding gain which is not available for OSTBC that provides
only diversity gain when used with convolutional coding
scheme. Merging TCM with OSTBC can provide the
system with both coding gain and diversity gain. [6].
TCM modulation is channel coding (TCM
modulation was invented by Gottfried Underback 1982)
[2]. TCM employed to improve coding gain which
allows efficient transmission over limitted wireless
channel bandwidth. The functions of convolutional
coder and mapper in TCM with rate of k/(k+1), where k
is integer number and M-array mapper with M=2k
provides large constellation of M=2k+1, onstellation
diagram is shown in Fig.3.

As both antennas operate at the same frequency no

extra bandwidth are required as well as the same power
is applied at both antennas terminals which considered
to be another advantage of the wireless system.

Fig.3 8-PSK constellation
In TCM coding not all bits are coded as in
convolutional coding, an extra bit added in TCM for
error control purpose, this means that TCM add forward
error control (FEC) to overcome signal impairment over
fading wireless channel. For example, PSK uses 8 bits
to represent symbols (27 = 128) and in TCM one bit used
for error control ( 26=64).
Fig. 4 represents TCM technique in MIMO system.
TCM
Bernoulli Binary
8-PSK
Data Source
Modulator
TCM Encoder
AWGN
Bernoulli Binary TCM
Data Sink 8-PSK
Demodulator
TCM Decoder
Fig.4. Block diagram for MIMO TCM Model
IV. OSTBC WITH TCM
Concatenated codes were conceived in 1966 by Dave
Forney as a solution of finding a code that decreasing
error probability as Reed–Solomon codes which provide
higher error correction capabilities, based on this idea
future development introduced.
OSTBC and TCM intended in MIMO communication
system to achieve full diversity gain with coding gain over
fading channel, with relatively easy to use but more
complex encoder and decoder designed with advantage of
higher data rate transmission without the need of
increasing bandwidth. [3, 9].
Fig. 5 shows the structure of concatenated-OSTBC-with-
TCM model.
TCM
Bernoulli Binary 8-PSK OSTBC
Data Source Modulator Encoder
TCM Encoder Fading
Channel
Frame Error
Control
FER Claculator AWGN
OSTBC
Decoder
TCM
Bernoulli Binary Channel
8-PSK
Data Sink Equalizer
Demodulator
TCM Decoder
Fig. 5 Concatenated OSTBC With TCM Scheme
V . SIMULATION of an 8-PSK and 8-PSK TCM
MODULATION OVER AWGN AND FADING
CHANNELS USING SIMULINK
Both 8-PSK and 8-PSK TCM are implemented using
Simulink over three different communication channels,
Fading which are AWGN , Rayleigh and Rician channels. This
Channel simulation model of 8-PSK system over these channels is
shown in Fig.5
Also in the case of using 8-PSK TCM similar 8-PSK model
is used just replace 8-PSK modulator/demodulator
(MODEM) by 8-PSK TCM MODEM .
Referring to these channels, simulation module consists of
the following parts :
A. Simulation 8-PSK Over AWGN Channel
An 8- PSK shown in Fig.7 is implemented using
Simulink. The simulation model consists of three main parts,
which are trasmitter,communication AWGN channel and the
receiver.Transmitter Side includes: random integer
generator, integer to bit converter and 8-PSK modulator
baseband blocks. Communication channel includes AWGN
channel block and receiver side includes 8-PSK demodulator
baseband and bit to integer converter blocks. In addition to
that the BER measurement equipment.
B. Simulation 8-PSK Over Fading channels
In the case of fading ( Rayleigh and Rician ) channels
the simulation model is shown in Fig.5 . That implementation
model consists of the same elements used in 8-PSK model
over AWGN channel in addition to that the following
elements are added in the channls, which are orthogonal
space-time code (OSTBC) encoder (Alamouti), multi-
input/multi-output (MIMO) Fading Channel Squeeze the
OSTBC combiner (Almaouti Code 3Rx) blocks.
Although the simulation 8-PSK Model Over AWGN and
Fading Channels shown in Fig.5 consist three parts such as
transmitter, communication channels and the receiver. That
simulation model block functions are clarified in the
following points.
  Transmitter Side M describes how many bits are mapped for each
The transmitter side include the following blocks: output integer.
o Random Integer Generator block In addition to these parts of the model shown in Fig.5
This block generates uniformly distributed random their are extra blocks are connected in the model such
integers in the rang of [0, M-1], where M is the set as
size defined in the dialog box which is equal 2 n , where
 Error Rate Calculation block
n is an integer number i.e n=1, 3, 3, ….etc.
The main function of this block is to compares input
o The Integer to Bit Converter block data from a transmitter side with input data from a
The main function of this block is to maps each integer receiver side . This block is used to calculate the error
or fixed-point value in the input vector to a group of bits rate (BER) as a running statistic, by dividing the total
in the output vector. number of unequal pairs of data elements by the total
number of input data elements from one source.
o The M-PSK Modulator Baseband block
The function of this block is to modulates using the M-  Display block
ary phase shift keying method. The output is a baseband This block show the value of the input data. It can
representation of the modulated signal. The M-ary specify the frequency of the display as well as the
number parameter in this work is equal 8. numeric input data, can specify the format of display.
 Communication Channels Also the simulation model M ary PSK with TCM is similar
The communication channels include AWGN and to the model M ary -PSK without TCM just changeable of the
fading channels and the main function of their channels M—PSK blocks by M-ary PSK TCM block. Where the
are illustrated in the following points: main function of these blocks are as follows:
o AWGN Channel block  M-PSK TCM Encoder block
This AWGN Channel block models a noisy channel by
This block implement TCM by convolutionally encoding the
adding white Gaussian noise to the modulated signal
binary input signal and mapping the result to a PSK signal
and is used in two cases of communication channel
constellation.
schemes. While fading channels is include the
following blocks:  M-PSK TCM Decoder block
o Orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) Encoder It uses the Viterbi algorithm to decode a TCM signal that was
block previously modulated using a PSK signal constellation.
The function of this block is to encodes an input
symbol sequence using OSTBC Which maps the input V. SIMULATION RESULTS
symbols block-wise and concatenates the output code A. Case of 8-PSK
word matrices in the time domain.
After building and setting the parameters of the the 8-PSK
o MIMO Fading Channel block Transceiver simulation model over AWGN and fading
It is filters an input signal using a MIMO multipath channels which is illustrated in Fig.6. The simulation result
fading channel. This block can models Rayleigh and obtained represented by the BER performance vs. Eb/No is
Rician channels and services the Kronecker model for shown in Fig.7
modeling the spatial correlation between the links
o Squeeze block e
This block function is to remove singleton dimensions
from its multidimensional input signal. A singleton
dimension is any dimension whose size is one. This
block works only on signals whose number of
dimensions is greater than 2. Scalar, vector, and matrix
signals pass through the this block unchanged.
o The OSTBC Combiner block
The main function of this block is to combine the input
signal from all of the receive antennas and the channel
approximation signal to extract the soft information of
the symbols that were encoded using an OSTBC.
 Receiver Side
The receiver side include the following blocks:
o M-PSK Demodulator Baseband block
The function of this block is to demodulate a signal that
was modulated using the M-ary phase shift keying
method, where in this work M=8. Fig .7. Bit Error Rate vs. Eb/No Performance of 8-PSK Over AWGN and
fading channels.
o Bit to Integer Converter block
The function of this block is to maps groups of bits in the From the obtained results shown in Fig.7 , it is rather clear
input vector to integers in the output vector. Where that the Rician channel performance of the system in terms of
the BER at a reasonable rate of 10-4 dB outperforms the other
two channels and this is well expected since the Rician simulation result obtained represented the BER performance
channel is Line of Sight channel. The signal energy at this vs. Eb/No using the same parameters as in the case of 8-PSK
BER is about 15 dB, whereas at the other two channels is is shown in Fig.8.
about 19 dB. i.e. there is an improvement of nearly 4 dB.
A. Case of 8-PSK TCM
Also after setting the parameters of 8-PSK TCM
Transceiver simulation model over AWGN and fading
channels which is illustrated in Fig.6, where the 8-PSK
MODEM was replaced by 8-PSK TCM MODEM . Hence

Fig.6 8-PSK Model Over AWGN and Fading Channel

From the Fig.8, when TCM was implemented, the

performance improved significantly for all the channels. The
improvement in power savings is about 4 dB. Again the Rician
channel has the better performance, when considering a BER
of 10-4 dB, Eb/No is about 11 dB and over 13 dB for the
AWGN channel and for the Rayleigh channel is about 15 dB.
Hence applying this coding technique improved the
performance on average by about 3 dB.

C, Obtained results comparison

Fig. 9 shows a comparison between performance of the 8
PSK with and without applying the TCM coding technique
for the Racian channel since this channel gave the better
performance among the tested channel. As indicated
previously the TCM improved the performance of the system
in terms of BER by about 3 dB in power savings on average.

Fig .8 . Bit Error Rate vs. Eb/No Performance of 8-PSK TCM Over
AWGN and fading channels

Fig.9 Bit Error Rate vs. Eb/No Performance of 38-PSK and 8-PSK TCM
PAM Over Rician Channel
VII. CONCLOUSION
In this work 8-PSK with and without applying the TCM
coding transceiver over AWGN, Rayleigh and Rician
communication channels was implemented and simulated.
The obtained results represented the BER performances
considering these various communication channels. It was
quite clear that a more signal energy is required to get a better
BER. In the case of 8-PSK without TCM . Also the BER
performance is better when the transmitted signal send via
Rician channel w.r.t the AWGN and Rayleigh channels.
Also, 8-PSK performance with or without the application of
TCM coding technology for Racian channel because this
channel provided good performance among the tested
channel. As described earlier, TCM improved system
performance in terms of bit error rate (BER) by about 3 dBm
in energy savings on average.
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