Angle Dierential Modulation Scheme

for Odd-Bit QAM

Syed Safwan Khalid and Shafayat Abrar
Department of Electrical Engineering,
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad
{safwan khalid,sabrar}@comsats.edu.pk
Abstract. In this paper, a method for dierential encoding of odd-bit
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is presented. Dierential en-
coding would allow QAM to be transmitted over media where coherent
detection is not possible owing to phase ambiguity; it would allow such a
transmission without the expense of the overhead incurred in data aided
transmission. An example 32-QAM constellation is proposed and the
algorithms for dierential encoding and decoding of the proposed con-
stellation are presented. The analytical performance of the given scheme
is also discussed and is veried using simulation results. Results of dif-
ferentially encoded detection scheme are also compared with those of
coherent detection.
Keywords: Odd-bit quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), cross
QAM, dierential encoding, coherent detection, phase ambiguity, error
performance.
1 Introduction
For high speed wireless communication, quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)
system, owing to its increased spectral eciency, is an attractive alternative to
phase shift keying (PSK) systems. Since a wireless channel can introduce exces-
sive phase shifts in the received signal, a coherent detection of received QAM
signals is dicult even if the receiver is equipped with a carrier recovery mecha-
nism. The received signal would suer from a phase ambiguity problem i.e. the
whole constellation would get rotated by an unknown multiples of /2 [1]. To
overcome this problem, an additional overhead of pilot signal or a continuous
insertion of synchronization sequences within the transmitted data is required.
In multiple-antenna systems, this overhead for coherent detection becomes even
larger. This has resulted in a renewed interest in recent years in non-coherent dif-
ferentially encoded modulation schemes [2]. The literature regarding dierential
coding for QAM constellations is few in number mostly discussing star 8-QAM
or 16-QAM constellations [2,3,4]. In [2,5], methods are proposed to dierentially
encode square QAM constellations; however, these methods are not applicable
directly to odd-bit cross QAM constellations. In [6], a general dierential scheme
based on higher-order statistics is discussed but it imposes a signicant perfor-
mance loss and complexity. More recently in [7], a dierential encoding scheme
B.S. Chowdhry et al. (Eds.): IMTIC 2012, CCIS 281, pp. 240248, 2012.
c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
Angle Dierential Modulation Scheme for Odd-Bit QAM 241
for 16-QAM and 32-QAM is proposed using look-up tables instead of rule-based
encoding. However, the feasibility and scalability of using look tables for higher
order QAM or memory limited systems requires more investigation.
In this paper, we propose a modication to the dierential encoding scheme
discussed in [2] to incorporating QAM constellations with odd number of bits per
symbol. We propose a modied constellation diagram for 32-QAM and discuss
the method for dierentially encoding and decoding the proposed constellation.
Moreover, the analytical performance analysis and computer simulation results
are presented for bit error rates (BER) of the proposed scheme under AWGN
channel. The performance of the same constellation diagram for coherent detec-
tion is also presented and the results are compared with the performance of the
classical coherently detected cross 32-QAM constellation.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: in section 2, the proposed 32-
QAM constellation is discussed along with its dierential encoding and decoding.
In section 3, the probability of bit error is analytically obtained. In section 4, the
simulation results are presented along with the analytical curves and conclusions
are drawn.
2 Dierential QAM Encoding and Decoding Algorithm
2.1 Encoding
To dierentially encode 32-QAM constellation, we have divided the constellation
into a set of eight circles with two overlapping circles in each quadrant as shown
in Fig. 1(a). The minimum distance between constellation points is 2b, where b is
a positive number. A group of ve bits is mapped onto the 32 possible transitions
such that the rst two bits determine the change in the quadrant, the third bit
decides which of the possible two circles to choose in each quadrant and the last
two bits determine the position of the one of the four complex symbols on the
given circle. Let S(i) be the transmitted symbol and S(i 1) be the previously
transmitted symbol. Let S(i) be dened as
S(i) = C(i) +D(i) +E(i) (1)
where C(i) is a position vector from the origin to the quadrant center. E(i) is a
position vector from C(i) to the center of a circle. D(i) is a position vector from
the center of circle to the transmitted symbol on the constellation diagram.
C(i) = R
1
e
j
1
, R
1
= 3b +

2b (2)
D(i) = R
2
e
j
2
, R
2
= 2b (3)
E(i) = R
3
e
j
3
, R
3
= b (4)
where
1
,
2
and
3
belong to the set {/4, 3/4, 5/4, 7/4}. The dierential
encoding rule can be described as three updating formulas
C(i) = C(i 1)e
j
1
(5)
D(i) = D(i 1)e
j
2
(6)
E(i) = E(i 1)e
j
3
(7)
242 S.S. Khalid and S. Abrar
2b

2
b
2b lb
l
b
lb
l
b
2b

2
b
2b

2
b

2
b
2b

2
b
2b

2
b
2b 2b 2b 2b .b .b
2
b
2
b
2
b
2
b
.
b
.
b
a) b)
Fig. 1. Constellations of 32-QAM: a) proposed and b) traditional
where the values of
1
and
2
are determined using Table 1. The value of

3
is calculated as
3
=

1
, where

3
is calculated using Table 2.
Table 1. Dibit to angle mapping for
1
and
2
00 0
01 /2
11
10 3/2
Table 2. Single bit to angle mapping for

3
0 0
1
Example: Without loss of generality, suppose that the value of b is set equal to
1 and the previous transmitted symbol S(i 1) be 3.8284 + 5.2426j as follows:
S(i 1) = C(i 1) +D(i 1) +E(i 1) (8)
where C(i 1) = R
1
e
j/4
, D(i 1) = R
2
e
j/4
and E(i 1) = R
3
e
j3/4
. Let
a segment of data bits 01011 is to be transmitted in the next symbol S(i).
Using the encoding tables, we get the values of angles as
1
= /2,
2
=
and

3
= 0; hence
3
= 0
1
= /2. Using the updating formulas as
described above we get C(i) = 3.1213 + 3.1213j, D(i) = 1.4142 1.4142j
and E(i) = 0.7071 + 0.7071j. Adding all three components the value of S(i) is
calculated to be 3.8284 + 2.4142j, refer to Fig. 2.
Angle Dierential Modulation Scheme for Odd-Bit QAM 243
s(i)
S(i-1)
11,Dq =p
2
0,Dq =-p/2
3
01,Dq =p/2
1
Fig. 2. Illustration of the encoding algorithm
2.2 Decoding
The received signal X(i) is given as X(i) = S(i)e
j
+ N(i), where S(i) is the
transmitted signal, N(i) is the additive white Gaussian noise component and
is the phase ambiguity which could take any value from a set of multiples of
/2. The rst step in decoding is to compare the received signal X(i) from each
signal point in the constellation diagram and choose the signal with minimum
Euclidian distance as the decoded signal

S(i). Now to determine

C(i) from

S(i)
we use the equation

C(i) = R
1
[sgn((

S(i)) +j sgn((

S(i)))] (9)
where sgn() is the signum function, (z) and (z) are used to denote real and
imaginary components of z, respectively. To decode
1
and hence the rst two
bits

C(i) is correlated with

C(i 1) i.e. multiplied by the complex conjugate of

C(i 1). As long as both

C(i) and

C(i 1) experience the same phase ambiguity
, the signal shall be decoded correctly. The value of
1
is detected as
if

C(i)

C(i 1)

R
2
1
then
1
= 0
jR
2
1
then
1
= /2
R
2
1
then
1
=
jR
2
1
then
1
= 3/2
(10)
Now to determine

D(i) we use the equation

D(i) = R
2
[sgn((

S(i)

C(i))) +j sgn((

S(i)

C(i)))] (11)
244 S.S. Khalid and S. Abrar
Similar to
1
,
2
is calculated from the value of

D(i) and

D(i 1) using
if

D(i)

D(i 1)

R
2
2
then
2
= 0
jR
2
2
then
2
= /2
R
2
2
then
2
=
jR
2
2
then
2
= 3/2
(12)
Similarly

E(i) = R
3
[sgn((

S(i)

C(i)

D(i))) +j sgn((

S(i)

C(i)

D(i)))] (13)
Now

E(i) is further rotated by an angle
1
to compensate for the angle sub-
tracted during the encoding phase hence

E(i)

E(i)e
j
1
. Finally for
3
if

E(i)

E(i 1)

R
2
3
then
3
= 0
R
2
3
then
3
=
(14)
As long as the phase ambiguity is same in the previous and the current detected
symbol it will not create any errors in decoding since the decoding is based on the
relative change of the angle of the previous and the current detected symbol and
not based on their absolute phases. Fig. 3 depicts the architecture of decoding
mechanism.
Dq
1
Dq
3
Dq
2
Sgn( )
Sgn( )
Sgn( )
Z
-1
Z
-1
Z
-1
Phase
Detector
Phase
Detector
Phase
Detector
E(i)
^
E(i-1)
^
D(i)
^
D(i-1)
^
C(i)
^
C(i-1)
^
S(i)
^
+
+
-
-
Fig. 3. Three stage decoding scheme for 32-QAM
3 Error Performance Analysis
To determine the probability of bit error for the proposed constellation and
encoding scheme we utilize the approach as given in [8] and approximate the
probability of bit error as
P
b

1
b
n
M1

i=0
N
i

j=1
P
x
(i)P {
ij
} n
b
(15)
Angle Dierential Modulation Scheme for Odd-Bit QAM 245
where M is the possible number of signal points transmitted, N
i
is the number
of nearest neighbors i.e. no. of symbols at d
min
from the ith symbol in the
constellation diagram. P
x(i)
is the probability of transmission of symbol. P {
ij
}
is the probability of symbol error when symbol

i

is erroneously detected as
symbol

j

. n
b
is the number of bit errors when symbol

i

is erroneously detected
as symbol

j

and b
n
is the number of bits per symbol.
P{
ij
}
di
= P

S(i) is incorrect and S(i 1) is correct

+ P

S(i) is correct and

S(i 1) is incorrect

+ P

S(i) is incorrect and S(i 1) is incorrect

= P {
ij
} (1 P {
ij
}) + (1 P {
ij
}) P {
ij
} + P {
ij
} P {
ij
}
= 2P {
ij
} (1 P {
ij
}) + P {
ij
}
2
= 2P {
ij
} P {
ij
}
2
(16)
Assuming P {
ij
} is small, the higher order term can be neglected from the above
expression and we obtain
P{
ij
}
di
2P {
ij
} (17)
Hence for dierential encoding the probability of bit error is approximated as
P
b,di

2
b
n
M1

i=0
N
i

j=1
P
x
(i)P {
ij
} n
b
(i, j) (18)
Using the union bound and replacing P {
ij
} with Q(d
min
/(2)), we get
P
b,di

2
b
n
Q

d
min
2

M1

i=0
N
i

j=1
P
x
(i)n
b
(i, j) (19)
Let n
b
(i)

=
N
i

j=1
n
b
(i, j) and N
b

=
M1

i=1
P
x
(i)n
b
(i) then (19) can be written as
P
b,di

2N
b
b
n
Q

d
min
2

(20)
The value of N
b
depends upon the particular bit mapping onto the constella-
tion symbols. For dierential encoding, the bit mapping is redened after each
symbol transmission; however, the value of N
b
remains unchanged and hence
N
b
can be calculated without loss of generality using any symbol. Let the pre-
vious transmitted symbol S(i 1) be the same as in example of Section 2 i.e.
3.8284 + 5.2426j. For this particular choice the bit mapping is shown in Fig. 4.
From Fig. 4, the value of N
b
may be calculated. For each symbol in the con-
stellation, we compute the number of bit errors that would result if a transmitted
symbol is erroneously detected as one of its nearest neighbor, i.e., the symbols
lying at d
min
from the transmitted symbol. The average of the total bit errors
gives the value of N
b
, as given by
246 S.S. Khalid and S. Abrar
01001
10001 11001
00001
01101
10101 11101
00101
01011
10011 11011
00011
01111
10111 11111
00111
01000
10000 11000
00000
01100
10100 11100
00100
01010
10010 11010
00010
01110
10110 11110
00110
Fig. 4. Bit mapping for the example given in Section 2
N
b
=
4
32

(3 + 1 + 1) + (3 + 1) + (2 + 2 + 1) + (1 + 1 + 2 + 3)+
(2 + 3 + 2 + 1) + (2 + 1) + (1 + 2) + (2 + 1)

= 4.75
(21)
The expression for the probability of bit error becomes
P
b,di
1.9Q

d
min
2

(22)
Now to gure out the probability of bit error in terms of E
b
/N
o
, we rst note
that d
min
is equal to 2b and =

N
0
/2.
P
b,di
1.9Q

2b
2

= 1.9Q

N
0
/2

(23)
Now to determine the relation between b and E
b
, we note that the symbol energy
is given by E
sym
= E[|s
i
|
2
], where s
i
= i
th
vector on constellation diagram
E
sym
=
4
32

4b
2
+ 4(b +

2b)
2
+ 4(b + 2

2b)
2
+ 4(b + 3

2b)
2

(24)
Angle Dierential Modulation Scheme for Odd-Bit QAM 247
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
10
0
E
b
/N
0
[dB]
P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y

o
f

b
i
t

e
r
r
o
r
Simulation: Differentiall 32.QAM (proposed)
Analysis: Differential 32.QAM (proposed)
Simulation: Coherent 32.QAM (proposed)
Analysis: Coherent 32.QAM (proposed)
Analysis: Coherent 32.QAM (traditional)
Fig. 5. Analytical and simulated BER curves under AWGN for the proposed dierential
encoding scheme and its comparison with coherent ones
b =

E
sym
2

8 + 3

2
=

5E
b
2

8 + 3

2
(25)
So the nal expression for probability of bit error for dierential encoding
becomes
P
b,di
1.9Q

E
b
N
0
10
2

8 + 3

(26)
To compare our scheme with the traditional cross-shaped 32-QAM coherent
modulation scheme, we use the expression for its approximate probability of bit
error as given in [9]:
P
b,cross

4
5
Q

15E
b
31N
o

(27)
4 Results and Conclusion
To verify the performance of the proposed scheme, the simulated as well as
the analytical probability of errors are presented in Fig. 5, where, in legend,
proposed and traditional respectively refer to the constellations as depicted
248 S.S. Khalid and S. Abrar
in Fig. 1(a) and 1(b). It can be observed that the simulation results match with
the analytical performance very well specically for higher SNR. The probability
of error for coherent demodulation of 32-QAM for the proposed constellation
with the bit mapping same as that shown in Fig. 3 is also plotted.The analytical
probability of error for the coherent 32-QAM of the proposed scheme can be
approximated as half the probability of error of the dierential encoding scheme
i.e. P
b,coherent
0.5P
b,di
. At higher SNR the dierence between coherent and
non-coherent detection becomes very small. Finally the performance of a classical
32 cross QAM coherent modulation is also plotted for comparison with our
scheme. We observe that our scheme does incur a penalty of slightly greater
than 1dB when compared with 32 cross QAM coherent detection however our
scheme proposes a method for dierential encoding that is simple and scalable
to higher order odd bit QAM to enable their transmission in such media where
coherent detection owing to phase ambiguity is not possible.
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