Bit-interleaved coded modulation

Abstract

It has been recognized by Zehavi (1992) that the performance of coded modulation over a Rayleigh fading channel can be improved by bit-wise interleaving at the encoder output, and by using an appropriate soft-decision metric as an input to a Viterbi (1990) decoder. The paper presents in a comprehensive fashion the theory underlying bit-interleaved coded modulation, provides tools for evaluating its performance, and gives guidelines for its design.