Viterbi decoding differential detection with space diversity for 16DAPSK on Rayleigh fading channels

This paper proposes Viterbi decoding differential detection (Viterbi decoding DD) with space diversity for 16DAPSK. Power ratio combing (PRC) is employed as a diversity combining scheme. The bit error probability performance is evaluated on Rayleigh fading channels by the computer simulation. It is shown that extending the length of a trellis path is effective for bits encoded in phase by 8DPSK to improve the bit error probability, while not effective for bits encoded in amplitude by 2DASK. However, Viterbi decoding DD with N/sub A/=2 for bits encoded in amplitude by 2DASK can achieve better performance than conventional DD. The proposed system with the lengths of trellis path N/sub A/=2 for bits encoded in amplitude by 2DASK and N/sub P/=100 for bits encoded in phase by 8DPSK is shown to achieve gains for the DD with space diversity systems when the fading is fast or not. Therefore, the Viterbi decoding DD with PRC diversity is shown to be effective for 16DAPSK to improve the bit error probability performance on Rayleigh fading channels.