DTM

Division of Signal Processing
Coding in a Discrete
Multitone Modulation
System
Daniel Bengtsson
and
Daniel Landstrm
( http://www.sm.luth.se/~daniel )
MASTERS THESIS
ISSN 0349 - 6023
1996:051 E
ISNR HLU - TH - EX - - 1996/51 - E - -SE
2 (28) Coding in a Discrete Multitone Modulation System
Abstract
Discrete Multitone (DMT) modulation is a multicarrier technique which makes efcient use of
the channel, maximizing the throughput by sending different numbers of bits on different
subchannels. The number of bits on each subchannel depends on the Signal-to-Noise Ratio of
the subchannel. The performance of a DMT system can be further increased by using powerful
coding techniques. This thesis investigates an implementation of coding for a DMT system. The
coding techniques considered are Reed-Solomon coding combined with interleaving, and Trellis
Coded Modulation. Weis 4-dimensional 16-state coder combined with trellis shaping is the sug-
gested trellis code. A single encoder is used which codes across the tones of each DMT-symbol.
At a bit error probability of 10
-7
the suggested codes gain 3-6 dB over uncoded transmission.
Hardware complexity and algorithmic aspects of coding are covered, as well as simulations to
verify it.
Preface
This Masters thesis has been presented in partial fullment of the requirements for the degree
of Master of Science. The work presented in this thesis has been conducted during the autumn of
1995, and has been done as a part of developing an experimental system called MUSIC at Telia
Research AB, Lule. We would like to warmly thank the other project members, especially
Mikael Isaksson
2
, the project leader, for their continuous support and inspiration. We would also
like to give a special thank to our examiner Dr. Per dling
1
for his help and guidance, and to Dr.
Lennart Olsson
2
and Dr. Tomas Nordstrm
3
for their never ending patience with our questions.
Lule, February 21, 1996.
1. Division of Signal Processing at Lule University of Technology, Sweden.
2. Division of Communications System at Telia Research AB, Lule, Sweden.
3. Division of Computer Engineering at Lule University of Technology, Sweden.
Daniel Bengtsson Daniel Landstrm
Contents
1 Introduction 5
2 System overview 5
3 Techniques 6
3.1 Channel Capacity 6
3.2 DMT channel model 6
3.2.1 Bitloading and Energyloading 7
3.3 Physical channel model 8
3.4 Reed-Solomon coding 8
3.4.1 Interleaving 8
3.5 Trellis Coded Modulation 9
3.5.1 Weis 4-dimensional 16-state coder 9
3.5.2 Trellis shaping 10
4 Coding for the MUSIC system 12
4.1 Reed-Solomon 12
4.2 Trellis Coded Modulation 12
4.3 Concatenated coding 12
5 Simulation 12
5.1 System parameters 13
5.2 Simplifications 13
5.3 Results 14
5.3.1 Available Bitrate 15
6 Hardware Complexity 16
7 Open questions 17
8 Conclusion 18
References 19
Appendix A 20
Appendix B 23
1 Introduction
This thesis discusses aspects of coding in a high-speed communication system. An experimental
system called MUSIC (a Multi-carrier System for the Installed Copper Network) [6] is being
developed at Telia Research AB in Lule, Sweden. MUSIC is intended for broadband communi-
cation over short, less than 1000 m, twisted pair copper cables, at data rates between 10 and 55
Mbit/s. The MUSIC system makes use of the multicarrier technique Discrete Multitone (DMT)
modulation [13]. DMT is similar to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM),
with the difference that DMT carries different numbers of bits on different subchannels. This
signalling scheme leads to a better usage of the channel capacity. The main purpose of our thesis
is to analyse coding for the MUSIC experimental system, and to design a coder with a fair cod-
ing gain and a reasonable complexity in both transmitter and receiver. The coding techniques
considered are Reed-Solomon (RS) coding [14] combined with interleaving, and Trellis Coded
Modulation (TCM) [1],[9],[12] combined with trellis shaping [3].
The presentation will proceed as follows. A system overview is given in Section 2. Section 3
presents techniques used in the experimental system. These are Discrete Multitone modulation,
Trellis Coded Modulation, trellis shaping, Reed-Solomon coding, and interleaving. Different
coding schemes for the experimental system are discussed in Section 4. In Section 5 computer
simulations are given. Simplications for the simulated system, parameters, and simulation
results are also presented. Section 6 gives a brief introduction to hardware complexity, while
some open questions are discussed in Section 7. Section 8 concludes the thesis. Appendix A
presents measurements on a copper cable, and Appendix B describes implementation issues.
2 System overview
The coded system is depicted in Figure 1. A source delivers a bit stream which are considered
random due to source coding. In the transmitter the bit stream is expanded by the Reed-Solomon
(RS) encoder. Redundant bits are added in the RS block, and the interleaving block rearranges
the expanded bit stream. A bit allocation scheme on the different subchannels is performed, such
that the number of bits each subchannel is to carry per transmitted symbol is decided. The max-
imum bit rate depends on the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) on each subchannel. Since the chan-
nel is stationary these bitloading factors are calculated in an initial training session. The
bitloading factors can be updated if required.
Figure 1. Coded MUSIC system.
Reed-Solomon
Encoder
Deinterleaver
Trellis
Encoder
IFFT
P/S
Cyclic Prex
DAC
Trellis
ADC
Remove Cyclic FFT
S/P
Channel
Reed-Solomon
Decoder
Interleaver
Decoder
Noise
Equalizer
The RS encoded data stream and the bitloading factors are provided to the Trellis encoder (see
Section 3.5). The M complex sub-symbols which leave the Trellis encoder form a DMT symbol,
and are mapped into 2M real time-domain samples, using inverse discrete Fourier transform
(IFFT). The discrete-time samples are passed through a Parallel to Serial (P/S) device. A cyclic
prex [6] is added in between two consecutive DMT symbols to avoid intersymbol interference
(ISI) and to preserve the orthogonality within the signalling interval. The discrete-time samples
are then applied to a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) and sent over the copper cable (see Sec-
tion 3.3). At the receiver the Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) samples the signal. Before the
cyclic prex is removed from the stream of data, it is used to synchronize the DMT symbol
clock at the receiver with the transmitter [22]. Then a 2M real FFT is performed and an equaliza-
tion unit is used to compensate for the channel distortion. The equalization is performed in the
frequency domain by multiplying the complex values with the inverse of the estimated fre-
quency response of the channel, which corresponds to Zero Forcing Equalization [15]. A Trellis
decoder performs a trellis search using the Viterbi algorithm [11], and converts the M decoded
signal points into bits. In the deinterleaver the bits are rearranged, and the redundant bits, added
in the RS encoder, are used in the RS decoder to detect and correct bit errors.
3 Techniques
This section discusses the different techniques used in the coded MUSIC system. First, an upper
bound on the error free bit rate is given. Next, the DMT channel model is presented, and a for-
mula for calculating the bitloading factors is described. Some characteristics of the physical
channel is presented. This is followed by an introduction to Reed-Solomon coding and Trellis
Coded Modulation.
3.1 Channel Capacity
Shannons noisy channel coding theorem [16] states that the highest error free bit rate R a dis-
crete memoryless channel can reach is bounded by the channel capacity C. Gaussian noise is the
worst kind of additive noise for a discrete memoryless channel. The channel capacity on the
bandlimited Gaussian channel is given by Shannon-Hartleys formula [16]. In the DMT channel
model the different subchannels are considered independent of each other. This means that the
DMT channel can be considered as a set of parallel subchannels. The total capacity C
tot
for M
parallel bandlimited Gaussian channels is given by
, (1)
where SNR
j
denotes Signal-to-Noise Ratio and W
j
denotes the bandwidth on respective channel.
Although the noise is not Gaussian
1
in a DMT system, this will be used as a point of reference in
the simulations in Section 5.
3.2 DMT channel model
A DMT system transmits data in parallel over several narrowband channels. The subchannels
carries different number of bits depending on their Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR). A DMT
1. Gaussian noise is the worst kind of additive noise.
C
tot
C
j
W
j
2
SNR
j
1 + ( ) log
j 1 =
M
=
j 1 =
M
=
system transmits data, using a 2-dimensional Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) on
each subchannel. The class of 2-dimensional QAM constellations (the MUSIC system uses
QAM with between 4 and 4096 points) will henceforth be denoted QAM. If the channel spec-
trum is divided into M subchannels, then the total number of bits transmitted per one DMT sym-
bol, b
DMT
, can be expressed as
. (2)
Each of the b
j
bits are mapped into a complex DMT sub-symbol X
j
, where j indexes the
subchannel. The subchannel transfer function H
j
(f) is the channel transfer function value H(f
j
) in
the sampled frequency f
j
. This implies that the subchannel is memoryless. The Signal-to-Noise
Ratio of subchannel j then becomes
, (3)
where
2
Noise,j
is the noise variance and E
j
the average symbol energy on subchannel j. In a
square 2-dimensional (2D) QAM constellation the average symbol energy E
j
can be expressed
as
, (4)
where N is the number of signal points and d the minimum Euclidean distance between two sig-
nal points.
3.2.1 Bitloading and Energyloading
In a DMT system the subchannels carry different number of bits depending on their respective
Signal-to-Noise Ratios, this is referred to as bitloading. Several techniques on how to perform
bitloading in a DMT system has been developed [2],[4],[5]. In [4] a bitloading algorithm is pro-
posed that maintains a constant symbol error probability across all subchannels,
, (5)
, (6)
where SNR
j
is given by (3), L is the constellation expansion due to coding,
d
the coding gain,
N
e
the number of nearest neighbours, and P
e
the symbol error probability. The signal energy E
j
,
see equation (3), is scaled so that b
j
in equation (5) is adjusted to a bitloading factor supported
by the system. We refer to this technique as energyloading. Multidimensional codes allows frac-
tional number of bits per 2D symbol, to be transmitted on each subchannel. For 2D, 4D, and 8D
trellis codes the granularity is, per 2D symbol, 1 bit, 0.5 bits, and 0.25 bits, respectively.
b
DMT
b
j
j 1 =
M
=
SNR
j
E
j
H f
j
( )
2
Noise j ,
2
-------------------------- =
E
j
N 1
6
-------------d
2
=
b
j
2
6SNR
j
d
4K
---------------------- 1 +
,
_
log
2
L ( ) log =
K Q
1
P
e
N
e
------
,
_
,
_
2
=
3.3 Physical channel model
The MUSIC system uses twisted pair copper cable as transmission media. The transfer function
of the twisted pair copper cable can be modelled (see Appendix A) as
, (7)
where d is the cable length, RC a cable constant and att the maximum attenuation. Depending on
whether communication is performed in one or in both directions the noise will be different [8].
In an Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) system, one way transmission, the main
noise impairment will be Far-End Crosstalk (FEXT). For duplex communication both FEXT
and Near-End Crosstalk (NEXT) are present. Spectral density models for NEXT and FEXT (see
Appendix A) are
, (8)
. (9)
Here att is the noise attenuation at frequency f
0
and S(f) the spectral density of the transmitted
signal.
3.4 Reed-Solomon coding
Reed-Solomon (RS) codes [14] are cyclic block codes that perform forward error control by
using redundancy bits. The data is partitioned into symbols of m bits, and each symbol is proc-
essed as one unit both by encoder and decoder. RS codes are described as (n,k) block codes
where k is the uncoded block length, and n is the coded block length. The extra symbols
are called the parity check symbols. The RS code satises: and , where t is
the number of correctable symbol errors. Under the assumption that errors are independently
distributed over the block, and that the symbol error probability is P, the symbol error rate after
the RS code can be estimated by:
. (10)
3.4.1 Interleaving
Most coding schemes are optimized for bit errors that appear randomly. Interleaving is a tech-
nique that rearrange the coded data such that the location of errors looks random and is distrib-
uted over many code words rather than a few code words. A periodic interleaving of depth m
reads m code words of length n each and arrange them in a block with m rows and n columns.
then this block is read by column. In the deinterleaver the bits are rearranged back to its original
order. When an erroneous decision is made in the Trellis decoder it takes some subsymbols to
reach the correct trellis path again. This makes interleaving useful in TCM systems where error
bursts occur.
H d f , ( ) 10
att
10
-------
e
RCf d
=
S
NEXT
f ( ) S f ( )10
att
10
-------
f
f
0
-----
,
_
3
2
---
=
S
FEXT
d f , ( ) S f ( )10
att 10 d ( ) 20 H d f
0
) , ( ) ( ) log log
10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d H d f ) , ( )
2 f
f
0
-----
,
_
2
=
n k ( )
n 2
m
1 n k 2t
P
Out
n 1
i 1 ,
_
P
i
1 P ( )
n i
i t 1 + =
n
=
3.5 Trellis Coded Modulation
For bandlimited channels, like telephone lines, trellis codes are feasible [9]. Trellis codes
expand neither the bandwidth nor the transmitted power, which is an appealing property over
many other codes. The basic idea is to combine coding and modulation. A trellis code consists
of a convolutional code that adds extra bits which increase the bandwidth. To reduce the band-
width a denser signal constellation scheme (a higher-order modulation scheme) is used. In this
way the bandwidth is kept constant. The cost of a denser signal constellation is a reduction of
the minimum squared distance between signal points. To minimize this reduction the signal con-
stellation is partitioned into many subconstellations. Within a subconstellation the signal points
are separated as much as possible. Two alternatives of partitioning the signal constellation are
set partitioning [12] and coset partitioning [21].
For an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel an approximate upper bound of the
symbol error for uncoded QAM is given in [15] as
, (11)
, (12)
where M is number of points in the constellation, E is the average symbol energy, and
2
is the
noise variance. The corresponding upper bound of the symbol error for a trellis code [9] is
, (13)
where d
free
is the free distance of the code and T(D,I) is the transfer function of the error state
diagram. The power of D is the Hamming weight of the output sequence associated with a path,
and the power of I is the Hamming weight of the input sequence associated with the same path.
The free distance of the code can be expressed as
, (14)
where
d
denotes the expansion of the minimum squared distance and L the constellation expan-
sion ratio. At high Signal-to-Noise Ratios the gain
d
obtained by the trellis code can be sepa-
rated into two different factors [10]: the coding gain
c
and the shaping gain
s
. The coding gain
c
depends on the separation of signal points. At a bit error rate (BER) of 10
-6
coding gains of up
to 7.5 dB can be reached with some coders [17] but these are very complex. To reduce the aver-
age signal power, a Gaussian like probability distribution over the signal points is desired. The
power reduction is called shaping gain
s
, and has a maximum gain of e/6 (1.53 dB) [18].
3.5.1 Weis 4-dimensional 16-state coder
In this section coding is considered while shaping is left to the next section. Weis 4D 16-
state coder [1] partitions the signal constellation into eight 4-dimensional (4D) subconstellations
(cosets). A 4D constellation consists of two 2D constellations, in the sense that each 4D point
P
symb
4Q
d
min
2
4
2
----------
,

_
,

_
d
min
2 6E
M 1
-------------- =
P
symb
1
2
---Q
d
2
free
4
2
-----------
,

_
,

_
e
d
2
free
4
2
----------
,
_
I
T D I , ( )
I 1 D , e
1
4
2
----------
= =
d
2
free
6E
d
LM 1
----------------- =
are mapped on a complex pair (X
i
,X
j
).
Figure 2. Weis 4D 16-state encoder.
A 3/4 rate convolutional encoder (see Figure 2) species a coset and the uncoded bits are
mapped in the constellation mapper to a point in the specied coset. The convolutional code is
described by its generator matrix
, (15)
where D is a delay element. For the Wei coder the derivative of the transfer function for the error
state diagram used in (13), with I=1, is given by
. (16)
This partitioning results in a coding gain of 6 dB due to the expansion of with a factor 4.
At the same time the constellation is expanded with one bit, which leads to a cost of 1.5-2.0 dB.
Roughly the asymptotic gain of this code would be 4.0-4.5 dB not considering the new error
coefcient. At the receiver a trellis search is performed to nd the most likely transmitted
sequence (maximum-likelihood decoder). The Viterbi algorithm [11] is used for this. As sug-
gested by Wei, we use a simplied (suboptimal) version [1] of the Viterbi algorithm which only
considers the nearest points in each coset as a candidate.
3.5.2 Trellis shaping
To improve Weis code further, shaping of the signal constellation is possible. Shaping attempts
to minimize the average energy of the signal points that are transmitted over the channel. Wei
describes a technique called generalized cross constellation [1], [10]. This shaping technique
gives a shaping gain of approximately 0.3 dB. Another shaping technique called trellis shaping
[3], offers a gain of approximately 1.1 dB. Trellis shaping uses a convolutional decoder in the
Trellis encoder to chose signal points with low energy.
Some bits of the input bit stream forms a syndrome (see Figure 3). Several signal points in the
expanded signal constellation correspond to the same syndrome. To nd signal points with the
same syndrome a inverse syndrome former and code words of the convolutional
Select 4D coset
Constellation
k-3 uncoded bits
3 bits
(X
i
,X
j
)
4 bits
G
Wei
(Select 4D Point)
mapper
G
Wei
1 D D
3
D
4
+ + +
1 D
3
D
4
+ +
---------------------------------------- 1 0 0
1 D
2
D
4
+ +
1 D
3
D
4
+ +
----------------------------- 0 1 0
1 1 1 1
=
I
T D I , ( )
I 1 =
40D
4
2304D
5
29184D
6
+ + =
d
2
min
H
shaping
1
( )
T
code (G
shaping
) are used. The convolutional decoder performs a trellis search over the possible
sequences of signal points to pick out a sequence with minimum energy. At the receiver the
shaping bits are multiplied with the syndrome former and the syndrome bits are
decoded.
Figure 3. Weis 4D 16-state encoder with trellis shaping.
Forney [3] suggests that the dual trellis code to be used for trellis shaping. A dual code is orthog-
onal to the original code. By using the dual Weis 4D 16-state code the generator matrix is given
by
, (17)
and the syndrome former is given by
. (18)
Finally a left inverse of H
T
shaping
is given by
. (19)
The shaping gain for trellis shaping using the dual Wei code is 1.1 dB using a innite decoding
depth in the Viterbi algorithm.
H
shaping
T
Select 4D coset
(Select 4D Point)
k-6 uncoded bits
3 bits
(X
i
,X
j
)
4 bits
G
Wei
3 bits 4 bits Minimize
Energy
Constellation
mapper
(H
-1
shaping
)
T
G
shaping
1 D
3
D
4
+ + 1 D D +
3
D
4
+ + , 1 D
2
D
4
+ + , 1 D D +
2
D
4
+ + ,
=
H
shaping
H
shaping
1 D D + +
3
D
4
+ 1 D +
3
D
4
+ 0 0
1 D +
2
D
4
+ 0 1 D +
3
D
4
+ 0
1 D +
3
D
4
+ 1 D +
3
D
4
+ 1 D +
3
D
4
+ 1 D +
3
D
4
+
=
H
shaping
1
( )
T
1
D D +
3
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
------------------------------
1 D +
2
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
-----------------------------
D
2
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
-----------------------------
1
1 D D + +
3
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
----------------------------------------
D
2
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
-----------------------------
D D +
2
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
------------------------------
1
1 D D + +
3
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
----------------------------------------
1 D +
2
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
-----------------------------
D D +
2
D
4
+
1 D +
3
D
4
+
------------------------------
=
4 Coding for the MUSIC system
In this section different coding schemes for the MUSIC system are presented. The different cod-
ing schemes used are Reed-Solomon coding, Trellis Coded Modulation, and a concatenated
scheme with an outer Reed-Solomon code and an inner trellis code.
4.1 Reed-Solomon
Reed-Solomon coding can easily be implemented in a DMT system, by adding a RS encoder
after the binary source, and a RS decoder at the end of the system. Interleaving is applied to
reduce the effect of detection error bursts. To avoid a decreased information rate, the coding gain
of the RS code is inserted into the bitloading algorithm (5). This technique has been studied in
[5] and will gain 3 dB over uncoded transmission at a bit error rate (BER) of 10
-7
. The parame-
ters (n,k), see Section 3.4, for the RS codes in [5] are (210,194) and (202,194). The symbols are
elements of the Galois eld of order .
4.2 Trellis Coded Modulation
Adding trellis coding into the DMT system leads to more structual changes than adding a RS-
code. Our channel is divided into many subchannels that transmit different number of bits.
Coding can be introduced into a DMT system in many ways. One straightforward way is to use
a separate trellis coder for each subcarrier. However, this would lead to a complex system with
many parallel encoders and decoders, and to a large decoding delay. The large coding delay
arises because each decoder receives only one QAM symbol per received DMT symbol. The
trellis code suggested for the MUSIC system uses only a single encoder that codes across the
subchannels, an approach also used in [5]. If all subchannels are used, the decoder receives 768
2-dimensional QAM symbols for every DMT symbol. In addition, by letting the last few bits
encoded into the DMT symbol be chosen so that the trellis encoder in the transmitter is forced to
the zero state, a symbol-by-symbol decoding is accomplished. Each DMT symbol can then be
decoded independently of other DMT symbols. The chosen trellis code is Weis 4D 16-state
code which can be combined with trellis shaping.
4.3 Concatenated coding
Reed-Solomon and trellis coding can be combined in a concatenated coding scheme [19]. In the
concatenated coding scheme, RS is the outer code, and Weis 4D 16-state code is the inner code.
A concatenated coding scheme of a RS code and Weis 4D 16-state code is analysed in [5] and
gain 5.2 dB over uncoded transmission at a BER of 10
-7
. As discussed in Section 4.2 the trellis
code can be improved by using trellis shaping. This will result in a 6.0 dB gain at a BER of 10
-7
.
5 Simulation
In this section parameters and simplications of the simulation model are discussed. Simulation
results are also presented. Bit error rates (BER) for three different systems have been simulated.
These are the uncoded system, a system with Weis 4D 16-state code, and a system with Weis
4D 16-state code combined with trellis shaping. Reed-Solomon coding has not been simulated
in this work, but it has been simulated for a similar system in [5]. The simulation tool used is a
data stream driven simulator named COSSAP version 6.8 developed by Synopsys Inc.
2
8
5.1 System parameters
The parameters were chosen to agree with the MUSIC system [6], with some modications. The
system is simulated only with FEXT disturbance, an ADSL environment. In the simulations the
following parameters where used.
FFT size: 2048 (2M)
Number of used subchannels: 768 (1023 available)
Length of cyclic prex: 128 sub-symbols
Integer bit assignments varying from 2-12 bits per 2D subchannel
Target bit error rate BER = 10
-7
FEXT attenuation: -50.7 dB at f
0
= 5 MHz
Channel attenuation: -27.5 dB at f
0
= 10 MHz
Equalizer: Zero Forcing
Sampling frequency f
s
= 26.6 MHz (not used in simulation)
The channel parameters are derived from measurements performed on a 500 meter long copper
cable with 10 twisted pairs, depicted in Figure 4, for more details see Appendix A.
Figure 4. Cable characteristics and model used in simulation.
The dotted lines in Figure 4 shows the model functions used in simulations. The FEXT constant
is chosen to match 9 worst case disturbers from the channel measurements, see Appendix A.
The bitloading factors are calculated using equation (5).
5.2 Simplications
The simplications in the simulation model are
perfect synchronization between transmitter and receiver.
high computational resolution (no clipping).
FEXT modelled as coloured Gaussian noise, no thermal noise or impulse noise.
independent errors (no bursts).
perfect knowledge of channel transfer function in the equalizer.
To compensate for non modelled losses a system margin is often added in the bitloading algo-
rithm. Experience from other systems [13] suggest a 6 dB system margin.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Frequency in MHz
A
t
t
e
n
u
a
t
io
n

in

d
B
5.3 Results
The results of the bit error rate (BER) simulations are shown in Figure 5. Parameters described
in Section 5.1 are used with zero system margin.
Figure 5. BER for simulated MUSIC system
Since the Signal-to-Noise Ratio is different on the respective subchannels, an average Signal-to-
Noise Ratio of the overall system is computed, using a geometrical mean of the Signal-to-Noise
Ratios on the subchannels. In Figure 5 the three different systems all have the same information
rate. The continuous lines are the theoretically predicted performances. We have assumed that
one symbol error leads to only a single bit error. This is motivated for high SNR as the trellis
code is chosen so that minimum distance error events give an error in only a single bit. At a BER
of 10
-7
the system employing Weis code gains approximately 4 dB SNR over the uncoded sys-
tem, while the system with both Weis code and trellis shaping has a gain of 5.1 dB.
Wei
Uncoded
Wei+TS
20 25 30 35
10
8
10
7
10
6
10
5
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
10
0
Average SNR
B
E
R
Figure 6. Bitloading factors
Compared to Figure 5, Figure 6 shows another way of expressing the coding gain, which is to
look at it as an increased information bit rate. In Figure 6 the bitloading factors can be seen for
the different subchannels. The curves show the number of information bits that are transmitted
on each subchannel. The area beneath the curves corresponds to the number of information bits
that are transmitted in each DMT symbol. The coded schemes transmit extra bits due to coding.
For Weis 4D code 0.5 extra bits are needed for each subchannel. For the combination with trel-
lis shaping an additional 0.5 bits are needed for each subchannel. The MUSIC system has a
maximum bitloading factor of 12. A consequence of this can be seen on the lower subchannels
in Figure 6, where the uncoded system has the highest information bit rate. This is because the
coded systems are only allowed to transmit 12 (coded) bits on any particular subchannel, and
thus, are limited to 11.5 and 11 information bits, respectively.
5.3.1 Available Bitrate
Based on the results presented in [5] and the simulations made in Section 5.3, theoretical bitrates
can be calculated. In Figure 7 an estimate of the bit rates for the different techniques discussed
in Section 4 are presented. To compensate for losses due to noise and synchronization
problems a system margin of 6 dB is added to the system.
Uncoded
Weis 4D coder
Weis 4D + Trellis shaping
lg(SNR+1)
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Subchannels
B
i
t
l
o
a
d
i
n
g

f
a
c
t
o
r
s
Figure 7. Available bitrates using a 6 dB system margin
As seen in Figure 7, coding the MUSIC system will give 10-20 Mbit gain over uncoded trans-
mission. 10 Mbit gain corresponds to RS coding, and 20 Mbit to the concatenated coding
scheme.
6 Hardware Complexity
In this section the hardware complexity for the coding in the MUSIC [6] system is discussed (a
deeper analyse can be found in Appendix B). A complete implementation will not be derived,
instead the hardware complexity is estimated. We have chosen to look at an implementation that
have parallelism in focus. A parallel solution requires more hardware but is faster than a more
serial implementation. The implemented coder, Weis 4D 16-state coder with trellis shaping, has
a Viterbi algorithm in both transmitter and receiver. The Viterbi algorithm dominates the hard-
ware complexity. The parts that contributes the most are calculations of metrics, and memory.
Additionally there are some block, for example binary matrix multiplications, counters, and par-
allel to serial converters, but their hardware complexity is negligible compared to the Viterbi
decoder. For the MUSIC system the number of operations needed to calculate the metric is:
Table 1: Number of operations for metric calculation
Operation Encoder Decoder
Addition 48 80
Subtraction 8 8
Compare 32 56
Multiplex 41 25
Uncoded
Wei
Wei+TS
Channel Capacity
RS
RS+Wei
RS+Wei+TS
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Average SNR in dB
R
a
t
e

i
n

M
B
i
t
The amount of hardware needed is not small, but still realistic for a fully parallel solution. The
wordlength used in the system will effect the amount of hardware. The question of wordlength
is left unanswered in this thesis. To reduce the amount of memory needed in the Viterbi algo-
rithm two techniques can be used. One is to save the chosen path instead of the previous state.
For this additional hardware to calculate the previous state from the current state and the chosen
path has to be added. The amount of memory can be further reduced by storing the received
point and then, for each state, only store the subgroup that survives. The drawback is that the
calculations to nd the closest point will have to be performed one more time after the Viterbi
decoder for each received 2D point. The amount of memory needed after these reductions would
be
(20)
where depth is the decision depth, states denotes the number of states, SG is the number of sub-
groups, path is the number of paths entering a state, dim is the dimension of the coder, and
nally, wlr is the word length describing a received 2D point. In the MUSIC system the amount
of memory for the receiver would be 10.24 kbyte, and 896 byte for the transmitter. Both gures
are reasonable for an implementation. Details for a faster, more straight forward solution that
does not use these memory saving techniques can be found in Appendix B. The implementation
of a Reed-Solomon code is not described here since it is well documented [14], and can be
bought as a chip at a reasonable price.
7 Open questions
Some questions are left to investigate, for instance:
What criteria should be used when evaluating Trellis Coded Modulation in the
frequency domain? In the time domain, peek to average power ratio [1],[10] is a
factor that should be kept low. How is efcient coding performed in the frequency
domain to keep the peek to average power ratio low in time domain?
How is energy loading done when other identical systems are interfering? What
algorithm should be used for energy loading in a duplex system? Is the waterll-
ing principle useful for energy loading?
What parameters should be used for the Reed-Solomon coder and interleaving,
when applied in a telephone network environment?
What other noise sources can be experienced in the telephone network? Amateur
radio for instance?
Multiplication 8
Table lookup 8
Table 1: Number of operations for metric calculation
Operation Encoder Decoder
memory depth states 2 SG ( ) 2 paths ( ) log + log ( ) dim
wlr
2
-------- +
,
_
=
8 Conclusion
In this thesis we have analysed the performance of coding in a broadband communication sys-
tem. The simulation model is based on a multicarrier modulation technique named Discrete
Multitone (DMT) modulation. Different coding schemes combining trellis coding with trellis
shaping and Reed-Solomon coding have been investigated. The different coding schemes are
evaluated at a bit error rate (BER) of 10
-7
. Theoretical bitrates of 30-70 Mbit are reached in the
simulated experimental system, using 500 meters of copper cable, with a system margin of 6 dB.
Evaluation of the different coding schemes lead to the following conclusions. A coding gain of 3
dB in SNR, could be reached with the Reed-Solomon coder [5]. The complexity of such an
implementation is quite modest. To improve a DMT system, with low hardware complexity, the
RS code is the best alternative. Implementing a trellis coder is more complex. A Viterbi algo-
rithm is needed to perform the trellis search in the receiver. The coding gain achieved is higher
than with the RS, about 4 dB, but the difference is to small to motivate the increase in hardware.
Weis 4D 16-state coder with trellis shaping have a coding gain of 5.1 dB. Implementing this
coder requires even more hardware, but still a realistic amount. The amount of extra hardware
needed to combine it with a Reed-Solomon coder is negligible. This concatenated coding
scheme gain 6 dB.
References
[1] L. F. Wei, Trellis-Coded Modulation with Multidimensional Constellations, IEEE Trans.
Inform. Theory, vol. IT-33, pp. 483-501, July 1987.
[2] J. A. C. Bingham, Multicarrier modulation for data transmission: an idea of whose time has
come, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 5-14, 1990.
[3] G. D. Forney Jr., Trellis Shaping, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 281-300,
March 1992.
[4] J. C. Tu and J. M. Ciof, A Loading Algorithm for the Concatenation of Coset Codes with
Multichannel Modulation Methods, Global Telecommunications Conference, San Diego, CA,
pp. 1183-1187, December 1990.
[5] T. N. Zogakis, J. T. Aslanis Jr., and J. M. Ciof, Analysis of a concatenated coding scheme for
a discrete multitone modulation system, IEEE MILCOM Conference Record, vol. 2, pp. 433-
437, 1994.
[6] M. Isaksson, T. Nordstrm, L. Olsson, and P. dling, A DMT Transmission System for High-
Speed Communication on Copper Wire Pairs, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference
on Signal Processing Applications & Technology, Boston, vol. 1, pp. 504-508, October 1995.
[7] Working Draft ADSL Standard T1E1.4/94-007R6.
[8] J. J. Werner, The HDSL Environment, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications,
vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 785-800, August 1991.
[9] E. Biglieri, D. Divsalar, P. J. McLane, and M. K. Simon, Introduction to Trellis-Coded
Modulation with Applications, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1991, ISBN 0-02-
309965-8.
[10] G. D. Forney Jr. and L. F. Wei, Multidimensional Constellations -Part I: Introduction, Figure
of Merit, and Generalized Cross Constellations, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in
Communications, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 877-891, August 1989.
[11] H. L. Lou, Implementing the Viterbi Algorithm, IEEE signal processing magazine, pp. 42-52,
September 1995.
[12] G. Ungerboeck, Trellis-Coded Modulation with Redundant Signal Sets, IEEE
Communication Magazine, vol. 25, pp. 5-21, February 1987.
[13] J. S. Chow, J. C. Tu, and J. M. Ciof, A discrete multitone transceiver system for HDSL
applications, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 257-266,
1993.
[14] E. J. Weldon Jr. and G. Ungerboeck, Error Correcting Codes and Reed-Solomon ECC,
Annual International Courses on Data Communication - Coding and Modulation, 1990.
[15] R. E. Blahut, Digital Transmission of Information, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,
1990, ISBN 0-201-06880-X.
[16] R. G. Gallager, Information Theory and Reliable Communication, John Wiley & Sons, New
York, 1968.
[17] R. deBuda, Some optimal codes have structure, IEEE Journal Selected Areas
Communication, vol. SAC-7, pp. 893-899, 1989.
[18] G. D. Forney Jr., R. G. Gallager, G. R. Lang, F. M. Longstaff, and S. U. Qureshi, Efcient
modulation for band-limited channel, IEEE Journal Selected Areas Communication, vol.
SAC-2, pp. 632-647, 1984.
[19] G. D. Forney Jr.,Concatenated Codes, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1966.
[20] D. Lewin and D. Protheroe, Design of Logic Systems, Chapman & Hall, London, ISBN 0-
412-42890-3.
[21] A. R. Calderbank and N. J. A. Sloane, New Trellis Codes Based on Lattices and Cosets, IEEE
Transactions on information theory, vol. IT-33, no. 2, pp. 177-195, March 1987.
[22] J.-J. van de Beek, M. Sandell, M. Isaksson, and P. O. Brjesson, Low-complexity frame
synchronization in OFDM system, in International Conference on Universal Personal
Communication (ICUPC95), Tokyo, Japan, 1995.
Appendix A
Copper cable measurements
A realistic channel model is derived from measurements performed on a copper cable. The cop-
per cable is 500 meter long with 10 twisted pairs. Models for Near-End Crosstalk (NEXT), Far-
End Crosstalk (FEXT), and the cable transfer function are suggested, based on the measure-
ments. The characteristics for the measured copper cable are, shown in Figure 8-10, and summa-
rised in three model functions and a table for attenuation characteristics.
Model functions:
Cable transfer function (see Figure 8)
,
where d is cable length, att is the maximum attenuation, and RC is a cable constant.
The corresponding impulse response is given by
NEXT spectral density (see Figure 10)
,
where S(f) is white noise, and att is attenuation at frequency f
0
.
FEXT spectral density (see Figure 9)
,
where S(f) is white noise, and att is attenuation at frequency f
0
.
H d f , ( ) 10
att
10
-------
e
RCf d
=
h d t , ( )
10
att
10
-------
RC
4t
3
-----------e
RCd
2
4t
-----------------
t 0 >
0 t 0 <
'
=
S
NEXT
f ( ) S f ( )10
att
10
-------
f
f
0
-----
,
_
3
2
---
=
S
FEXT
d f , ( ) S f ( )10
att 10 d ( ) 20 H d f
0
, ( ) log log
10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d H d f , ( )
2 f
f
0
-----
,
_
2
=
Figure 8. Cable measurement
In Figure 8 the impulse response from a measured pair and the model impulse response is seen.
The model function is valid for frequencies larger than 80 kHz this can be seen in the rightmost
plot in Figure 8.
Figure 9. FEXT measurements
Measurements with 1 and 9 FEXT interferer are depicted in Figure 9. As in the cable transfer
function model, the FEXT spectral density model is valid for frequencies larger than 80 kHz.
Figure 10.NEXT measurements
In Figure 10 the spectral density of 1 and 9 NEXT interferer are shown. As seen in the rightmost
plot the NEXT spectral density model is valid for frequencies larger than 100 kHz.
0 5 10 15
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
time in micro seconds
a
m
p
lit
u
d
e

in

V
Implus respons
0 10 20
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
frequency in MHz
a
t
t
.

d
B
Transfer function att=36.8
10
6
10
8
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
frequency in Hz
a
t
t
.

d
B
Transfer function att=36.8
0 5 10 15 20
100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
frequency in MHz
a
t
t
.

d
B
1,9 FEXT interferer on pair 6
10
6
10
8
100
90
80
70
60
50
frequency in Hz
a
t
t
.

d
B
1,9 FEXT interferer att=56.9 50.7
0 5 10 15 20
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
frequency in MHz
a
t
t
.

d
B
1,9 NEXT interferer on pair 9
10
6
10
8
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
frequency in Hz
a
t
t
.

d
B
1,9 NEXT interferer att=32.4 25.8
The reference frequency f
0
was chosen to give the spectral density its maximum attenuation,
FEXT has maximum att at 5 MHz and NEXT has maximum att at 25 MHz. As seen in Table 2
the difference between 9 and 1 interferer is approximately 3 dB for NEXT and FEXT. During
the measurements it was found that 4 interferer gives almost the same degrade in performance as
9 interferer.
Table 2: Attenuation characteristics
Measured att. in dB at f
0
f
0
in MHz Interferers
CABLE:
worst case pair -36.9 20 -
average worst case -35.5 20 -
NEXT:
worst case pair -27.8 25 1
average worst case -30.4 25 1
FEXT:
Appendix B
Implementation
Appendix B discusses some aspects of implementing Weis 4-dimensional 16-state coder with
trellis shaping in the MUSIC [6] system. A complete implementation will not be derived,
instead an estimate of the hardware complexity is given. Techniques on how to reduce hardware
complexity are suggested, and the focus have been on high parallelism. Since the suggested
implementation is intended for the MUSIC system, when advantages can be derived from
including operations into the present implementation, these are used and discussed. A system
without trellis shaping can be derived from this system by simply exclude some blocks.
Reed-Solomon coder and Interleaving
Implementation of a Reed-Solomon (RS) code will not be discussed, as it is well documented
[14]. Periodic interleaving is performed with two memory banks. One memory bank is used to
write in and one to read from. The memory banks are switched when the write memory is full
and all stored bits in the other memory are read.
Trellis encoder
The Trellis encoder for Weis 4D 16-state code with trellis shaping is depicted in Figure 11. A
encoder without trellis shaping can be accomplished by excluding the shaded blocks.
Figure 11.Trellis encoder
V
i
t
e
r
b
i

a
l
g
o
r
i
t
h
m
S
e
r
i
a
l

/

P
a
r
a
l
l
e
l
M

a

p

p

e

r
E

n

e

r

g

y
Carrier
Scale
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. 8.
7.
M
e
m
o
r
y
M
e
m
o
r
y
Conj
9.
H
-T
Codew.
Count
CE
B
i
t
c
o
n
v
.
Block description of the Trellis encoder in Figure 11.
1) Input data are read into a serial to parallel (S/P) converter. The number of
input bits are equal to blf
i
+blf
j
-2, where blf
i
is the bitloading factor of
subchannel i. The number of read bits corresponds to a 4D symbol, repre-
sented by two 2D symbols, sent on two different subchannels.
2) The 3/4 rate convolutional encoder, see equation (15), can be implemented
with a 2/3 rates convolutional encoder (CE) and a bitconverter. The bitcon-
verter takes three bits from CE plus one extra bit from the S/P and creates
the two least significant bits of two 2D symbols. To be able to force the
Wei code to the zero state at the end of each transmitted DMT symbol, the
input to CE needs to be controlled. This is done with the count flag. A more
detailed description of the CE and the bitconverter can be found in [7].
3) Three bits from the input data stream forms a syndrome. These bits are
multiplied with the left inverse syndrome former, see equation (19).
4) Each of the eight different code words of the dual Wei code [3] is added to
the four bits from the left inverse syndrome former (block 3). Resulting in
eight four-bit patterns. The first two bits of each pattern is the most signif-
icant bits of the first 2D symbol, and the other two are the most significant
in the second 2D symbol.
5) The mapper block maps bits onto a signal point using twos-complement
binary representation [7]. Eight mapper blocks are used in parallel to create
the eight possible 4D symbols used in trellis shaping. The mapper block is
a part of both the uncoded and the coded system, and therefore its imple-
mentation has not been studied in this thesis. Since the operation is per-
formed four times for each subchannel (2D point) an efficient implemen-
tation is important.
6) The energy of a 2D signal point is calculated by using the squared Eucli-
dean distance to origo. Eight energy blocks are used in parallel to create
the eight possible 2D metrics used in trellis shaping. To compensate for
different constellation sizes the energy metrics are scaled to achieve the
same average energy. To reduce computational complexity the scale factor
can be approximated with the closest power of two, and the genmag algo-
rithm [20] may be feasible to approximate the squared Euclidean dis-
tance.
7) Eight 2D signal points are combined in pairs, according to the dual Wei
code [3], into eight 4D signal points.
8) To minimize the energy of the transmitted signal points the Viterbi algo-
rithm is used. The implementation of the Viterbi algorithm is described on
page 27.
9) The signal points are multiplied with a scale factor, to achieve the same av-
erage energy, and sent to the FFT. This multiplication can be included as
a preoperation in the FFT.
Note! If the bitloading factor blf
i
is less than four, trellis shaping can not be performed on that
particular subchannel, and if it is smaller than two, then the subchannel will not be used.
Table 3 gives an estimate of the hardware complexity for the Trellis encoder.
Trellis decoder
The Trellis decoder for Weis 4D 16-state code with trellis shaping is depicted in Figure 12. A
system without trellis shaping is accomplished by excluding the shaded block.
Figure 12.Trellis decoder
Table 3: Complexity for the Trellis encoder
Block Implementation
CE 4 states (1 bit memory), 4 XOR,
1 multiplexer, 1 bit counter.
Bitconverter 4 XOR
H
-T
36 states (1 bit memory), 3
XOR, 4 10-input parity
counters.
Codeword 4 NOT
Energy Eight subblock each containing:
4 shiftregister, 2 compare, 1
addition,1 subtraction, 3 multi-
plexers.
Block 7 8 additions
Viterbi 32 additions, 16 compare, 17
multiplexers, 896 byte memory.
Block 9 2 multiplications (can be
reduced).
G
-1
H
T
C
l
o
s
e
s
t
C
l
o
s
e
s
t
2
D
M
e
t
r
i
c
2
D
M
e
t
r
i
c
4
D

M

e

t

r

i

c
D

e

m

a

p

p

e

r
P
a
r
a
l
l
e
l

/

S
e
r
i
a
l
V
i
t
e
r
b
i

a
l
g
o
r
i
t
h
m
Scale
2. 3.
4.
5.
6. 7.
8.
9.
1.
Block description of the Trellis decoder in Figure 12.
1) The received point is multiplied with the inverted scale factor from the
Trellis encoder in 9) on page 24. This can be included in the equalizer and
therefore it will not increase the hardware complexity.
2) In each of the four subgroups the point that are closest to the received point
are determined.
3) This block calculates the Euclidean distance between the received point
and the closest point in each 2D subgroup. This operation can be reduced
to
where C
m
is the closest point, and z denotes the received point.
4) Each 4D metric is calculated by combing four 2D metrics in two pair as
described in [1], add them together, and then compare the two pairs. The
smallest value becomes the 4D metric and the coordinates of the corre-
sponding point will pass through a multiplexer into the Viterbi decoder
block.
5) This block performs maximum likelihood decoding using the Viterbi algo-
rithm. Its implementation is described in Viterbi decoder at page 27.
6) In the demapper the coordinates of the received point are converted (ac-
cording to [7]) into bits. The bits are divided into uncoded bits, that are fed
into the P/S converter, and coded bits, that are decoded in G
-1
(8.), and H
T
(7.).
7) A matrix multiplication is performed to gain the information bits from the
syndrome bits.
8) A matrix multiplication is performed to decode the information bits from
the CE encoded bits.
9) The parallel bit stream is converted to serial.
Table 4: Complexity for Trellis decoder
Block Implementation
2D Metric
Note: Two identical block work
in parallel.
Four subblock each containing:
1 table lookup, 1 multiplication,
1 subtraction.
4D Metric Eight subblock each containing:
2 additions, 1 compare, 1 multi-
plexer.
Viterbi 64 additions, 48 compare, 17
multiplexers, 10.24 kbyte mem-
ory.
H
T
3 shiftregister (4-bit), 17 XOR,
8 NAND.
G
-1
2 XOR
M
2
C
m
( )
C
m
2
2
------- C
m
z =
M
4
min M
2
C
i
( ) M
2
C
j
( ) + M
2
C
k
( ) M
2
C
l
( ) + , ( ) =
Table 4 gives an estimate of the hardware complexity for the Trellis decoder.
Viterbi decoder
In the system two Viterbi decoders are used, one in the receiver, and one in the transmitter. The
Viterbi algorithm in the receiver is more complex than the one in the transmitter, and is therefore
described in this section.
Figure 13.Viterbi decoder for the receiver.
Block description of the Viterbi decoder in Figure 13.
1) In the first part, the metric for each path entering a state is calculated, and
the path with the smallest metric survives. The metric for a path entering a
state is the sum of the metric for the previous state and the metric for the
path between the states.
2) The second part consists of a large memory where the surviving path met-
ric, previous state, and the 4D point that corresponds to the surviving path
are stored for all states. The amount of memory can be reduced, by first
reading the data out, and then write the new data into the same position.
This can be done with an address counter that count from zero to the deci-
sion depth and then down to zero, in a cyclic manner.
3) A multiplexer forwards one of 16 points, and the pervious state from the
memory. The previous state is used in the next clock cycle to control the
address of the multiplexer.
4) In the beginning and in the end of the trellis only some states are possible.
To control this a counter is needed.
The amount of memory needed for the Viterbi algorithm can be derived by
Metrics
Coordinates
M
e
m
o
r
y
>
>
>
Metrics
Coordinates
>
>
>
16 identical
Counter
1.
2.
3.
4
M S
j
( ) min
i
M S
i Previous ,
( ) M P
j i , ( )
( ) + ( ) =
where depth is the decision depth, states denotes the number of states, path is the number of
paths entering a state, dim is the dimension of the coder, and, nally, wlc is the word length rep-
resenting a 2D point in the signal constellation. To reduce the amount of memory needed in the
Viterbi algorithm two techniques can be used. One is to save the chosen path instead of the pre-
vious state. For this additional hardware to calculate the previous state from the current state and
the chosen path has to be added. The amount of memory can be further reduced by storing the
received point and then, for each state, only store the subgroup that survives. The drawback is
that the calculations to nd the closest point will have to be performed one more time after the
Viterbi decoder for each received 2D point. The amount of memory needed when using these
techniques would be
where wlr is the word length describing a received 2D point, and SG is the number of subgroups.
In the MUSIC system, where dim=4, and states=16, the amount of memory would be 10.24
kbyte for the receiver, since depth=512, SG=16, path=4, and wlr=32. In the transmitter the
amount of memory will be 896 byte, because depth=64, SG=8, path=2, and wlr=24.
memory depth states dim
wlc
2
---------
2
states ( ) log +
,
_
=
memory depth states
2
SG ( )
2
paths ( ) log + log ( ) dim
wlr
2
-------- +
,
_
=

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