Lecture 5

Trellis Coded Modulation

References :
1. G. Ungerboeck, “Trellis coded Modulation With Redundant signals sets.
Part I, Part II” IEEE Commun. Mag. vol.25, pp.5-12, pp.12-22, Feb.1987.
2. G. Ungerboeck, “Channel Coding With Multi-level/Phase signals” IEEE
Tran. Inform. Theory vol.IT-28, pp.55-67, Jan.1982.
3. Book : “Introduction to Trellis-Coded Modulation With Applications”.
Motivation of TCM
Generally, there exist two possibilities to compensate for the rate loss
caused by using error-correcting codes :

<l> increasing the modulation rate if the channel permits bandwidth

expansion.

<ll> enlarging the signal set of the modulation system if the channel is
band-limited.

→ If modulation and error-correction coding are performed in the

classical independent manner, disappointing results are obtained.
 Example:
To use an error-correcting code with the same rate as uncoded 4-PSK, we
can use either <l>or <II>.

<l> a convolutional code with rate 2/3 and 4-PSK modulation.

Comment: The duration TÆ2/3 T, therefore bandwidth WÆ2/3 W!

<ll> a convolutional code with rate 2/3 and 8-PSK modulation.

Comment: If the 4-PSK system operates at an error of 10−5 , at the same
SNR, the “raw” error rate at the 8-PSK demodulator exceeds because of
the smaller spacing between the 8-PSK signals.

∴ Patterns of at least 3 bits errors must be corrected to reduce the error rate
to that of the uncoded 4-PSK system.
→ A rate- 3 , 64-state binary convolutional code has d m in = 7 .
2 H

After all this effort, error performance only breaks even with that of uncoded
4-PSK!
Two problems contribute to this unsatisfactory situation :

<l>The independent “hard” signal decisions made prior to decoding

→ cause an irreversible loss of information in the receiver.

Let unquantized “soft” output samples of the channel be

rn = an + wn

where an : the discrete signals sent by the modulator.

wn : samples of an additive white Gaussian noise process
The decision rule of the optimum sequence decoder :
Among the set C of all coded signal sequences, determine {aˆn } with
minimum squared Euclidean distance from {rn }. That is,
{aˆ n } = arg min ∑
2
rn − a n
{a n }∈C
The minimum squared Euclidean distance (MSED) is called the squared
“free distance”.
∑
2
d 2free = min an − bn
{an }≠{bn }
{an },{bn }∈C
<ll> Mapping code symbols of a code optimized for Hamming
distance into nonbinary modulation signals.
→ does not guarantee that a good Euclidean distance structure is
obtained.

Squared Euclidean and Hamming distances are equivalent

only in the case of binary modulation or four-phase modulation.

Binary modulation systems with codes optimized for Hamming

distance and soft decision decoding have been well established
since the late 1960s for power-efficient transmission at spectral
efficiencies of less than 2 bit/sec/Hz.
Consider a transmission of 2 bit/T by uncoded 4-PSK
modulation, where Pr ( e ) = 10 occurs at SNR=12.9 dB. If the
−5

number of channel signals is doubled, (e.g. 8-PSK), an error-

free transmission of 2 bit/T is theoretically possible at SNR =
5.9dB.
But only 1.2dB can further be gained if there is no constraint
on the number of signals.

By doubling the number of channel signals, almost all is

gained in terms of channel capacity that is achievable by
signal-set expansion.
Examples of TCM
Asymptotic coding gain (ACG)

d 2fre e / E
ACG =
d m2 in / E ′

where d min is the minimum Euclidean distance for uncoded

transmission, d min is the free distance for coded transmission,
and E ′ and E are the average energies spent to transmit with
uncoded and coded transmission respectively.

Uncoded QPSK
2
dmin =2
Δ0 = 2 0 0 0
2
2 2 2

4 4 4
4 0
6 6 6

6
Four-state trellis coded 8-PSK

π⎞
2
⎛
Δ 02 = ⎜ 2sin ⎟ = 0.586
⎝ 8⎠
2
Δ = 2 =2
2
1

Δ 22 = 22 = 4
The 8-PSK signals are assigned to the transitions in the four
state trellis in accordance with the following rules :

(a) Parallel transitions are associated with signals with maximum

distance Δ 2 , the signals in the subsets (0,4), (1,5), (2,6) or (3,7).

(b) Four transitions originating from or merging in one state are

labeled with at least distance Δ1 between them, the signals in the
subsets (0,4,2,6) or (1,5,3,7).

(c) All 8-PSK signals are used in the trellis diagram with equal
frequency.
Any two signal paths that diverge in one state and remerge in
another after more than one transition have at least squared
Euclidean distance Δ12 + Δ 02 + Δ12 between them.

(Δ + Δ 02 + Δ12 ) > Δ 22 ← parallel transitions

2
1

∴ d 2f r e e = 4
4
ACG over uncoded QPSK : 1 0 lo g = 3 (dB)
2

any state transition along any coded 8-PSK sequence transmitted, there
exists only one nearest-neighbor signal at free distance, which is the
rotated version of the 180D transmitted signal.
 Realization
0
u0 00001111 2
1
00110011
u1 D D 3
2
01010101
0
3
signal : 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1

The code is invariant to a signal rotation by 180D , but to no other

rotations.
At high SNR, the error event probability is generally well
approximated by
⎛ d free ⎞
Pr ( e ) ≈ N free ⋅ Q ⎜ ⎟⎟
⎜ 2σ
⎝ ⎠
y2
1 ∞ −
where Q ( x) = ∫ e 2
dy,
2π x

σ 2 is the variance of Gaussian noise samples in each signal

dimension.

N free is the (average) number of nearest-neighbor signal sequences

with distance d free .
In TCM schemes with more trellis states and other signal sets , d free is not
necessarily found between parallel transitions, and N free will generally
be an average number larger than one.

Two-state trellis coded 8-PSK

d 2free = Δ12 + Δ02 = 2.586

2.586
ACG over uncoded QPSK: 10 log = 1.1 (dB)
2
Eight-state trellis code for amplitude/phase modulation
Distance :
A0 : Δ 0
{D0 , D4 , D2 , D6 } or {D1 , D5 , D3 , D7 } : Δ1 = 2Δ 0
{D0 , D4 } or {D2 , D6 } or {D1 , D5 } or { D3 , D7 } : Δ 2 = 4Δ 0
Di , i = 0~7 : Δ 3 = 8Δ 0
8-state trellis
→ 4 transitions diverge from and merge into each state

To each transition, one of the subset D0 ," , D7 is assigned.

If A0 contains 2m+1 signals, each of its subsets will comprise 2 m− 2 signals
→ 2 m− 2 parallel transitions
→ 2 m signals can be sent from each state, as required to encode m
bits per modulation interval.

The assignment of signal subsets to transitions satisfies the same three rules
of coded 8PSK.
 2
To compute d free :
The four transitions from or to the same state are always assigned either
the subsets { D0 , D4 , D2 , D6 } or { D1 , D5 , D3 , D7 } .
→ A squared Euclidean distance of at least when sequences diverge and
when the remerge
(1) If paths remerge after two transitions, SED ≥ 4Δ 0 between the
2

diverging transitions Æ total SED ≥ 6Δ 02

D0 D0

Δ2 Δ1
D4 D6

(2) If paths remerge after three or more transitions, at least one

Δ 2
intermediate contributes an additional SED 0 Æ total SED ≥ 5Δ 0 .
2

2
(3) Parallel transition Æ SED == 8Δ 0 Æ ACG = (dB).
5 Δ 02
∴ d 2
free = 5Δ 2
0 Æ ACG = 1 0 ⋅ lo g ≈ 4 (dB).
2 Δ 02
Roughly speaking, we can get the coding gain with :
4 states : 3dB
8 states : 4dB
16 states : 5dB
128 or more states : up to 6dB

(1) Doubling the number of states does not always yield a code with
better error performance. → The distance growth is limited.

(2) Numbers of nearest neighbors, and neighbors with next-largest

distance are increased.
→ prevent real coding gains exceeding the ultimate limit set by
channel capacity.
Design of TCM Schemes
General structure of encoder for TCM

m bits are transmitted per operation.

m bits ( m ≤ m ) are expanded by a rate - m / ( m+

 1) binary
 +1 coded bits.
convolutional encoder into m

The m  bits are used to

select one of 2m+ 1

subsets of a redundant
2m+1 -ary signal set.
The remaining m − m
uncoded bits determine
which of the 2m−m signals
is to be transmitted.
 Set partitioning :

If the labels of two subsets

agree in the last q positions,
but not in the bit , then the
signals of the two subsets
are elements of the same
subset at level q in the
partition tree; thus they have
at least distance .
The free Euclidean distance of a TCM code dfree = min ⎡⎣Δm +1, dfree ( m
 ) ⎤⎦ , where
Δm+
 1 is the minimum distance between parallel transitions and d free ( m
 ) is the

minimum distance between nonparallel paths in the TCM trellis diagram.

d 2free ( m ) ≥ min
{en }≠{0}
∑ q ( en )
Δ
n
2

Minimization has to be carried out over all non-zero code sequences {en }
that deviate at, say, time 0 from the all-zero sequence {0} and remerge with
it at a later time.

q ( en ) is the number of trailing zeros in en . For example, q ( en ) =2,

if en = ⎡en ,", en ,1,0,0⎤ . Δ q ( 0 ) = 0, not Δm+
m 3
⎣ ⎦  1 !
Let {Zn } and {Z′n } = {Zn ⊕ en } be two code sequences. Since the convolutional
code is linear, {en } is also a code sequence. The distance between signals in
the subsets selected by Z n and Z′n is lower-bounded by Δq(en ).

Usually, this smallest distance equals Δq(en ) for all en . Only when the
signal subsets contain very few signals may the bound not be satisfied
with equality. For example, for 8PSK, en = [1 0 1] → q ( en ) = 0 → Δ q(e ) = Δ. 0 = 0.586
n

But for all possible {Zn , Z′n = Zn ⊕ en } = {000,111} or {001,100} or {010,111}or {011,110}
, the squared Euclidean distance is larger then Δ 02 !

This equation is of key importance in the compute distance between

every pair of TCM signal sequences.
Two encoder realizations
feedback-free encoder.
systematic encoder with feedback
A systematic encoder cannot generate a catastrophic code.

Parity-check equation :
A linear convolutional code of rate m /(m + 1) is most compactly
defined by a parity-check equation which puts a constraint on the
code bits in a sliding time window of length υ + 1 :
m
∑
i=0
( hυi Z ni −υ ⊕ hυi −1 Z ni −υ +1 ⊕ " ⊕ h0i Z ni ) = 0

where
υ : constraint length
⊕ : modulo-2 addition
Z ij : the i-th code bit at time j
h li ∈ {0 ,1} : binary parity-check coefficients of the code
Valid code sequences satisfy this equation at all times n. Note that the
equation defines only the code sequences, not the input/output relation
of an encoder.

A minimal encoder is realized with υ binary storage elements.

That is, this code has 2υ trellis states.

For example
Z n2−2 ⊕ Z n1−1 ⊕ Z n0−3 ⊕ Z n0 = 0

⇒ Z n0 = Z n2−2 ⊕ Z n1−1 ⊕ Z n0−3

Another 8-state TCM
 Effects of Carrier-Phase Offset
Reference:
L. F. Wei, “Rotationally invariant convolutional channel coding with expanded
signal space-Part II : nonlinear codes,” IEEE J. Select. Area Commun., pp.672-686,
1984.
The soft-decision decoder operates on a sequence of complex-
{ }
valued signals, {rn } = an ⋅ e + wn
j Δφ

where an : transmitted TCM signals

wn : additive Gaussian noise
Δφ : phase offset

The coded 8PSK fail at Δφ =

22.5°. In contrast, uncoded
4PSK requires a higher signal-
to- noise ratio at small phase
offset, but has an operating
range up to Δφ = 45° in the
absence of noise. These results
are typical for TCM schemes.
In the trellis diagrams of TCM schemes, there exist long distinct paths
with low growth of signal distance between them, that is, paths which
have either the same signals or signals with smallest distance Δ0
assigned to concurrent transitions.

In most digital carrier- modulation

systems, decision-directed loops
are employed for carrier-phase
tracking. The figure at left side
illustrates, for 4-state 8PSK, the
mean estimate of Δφ and its
variance as a function of the actual
value of the phase offset.
Conventionally, the problem of phase ambiguity is solved
by using a differential encoding technique.

For 2D signal constellations, it is impossible to achieve

90° invariance with linear codes (the best that can be done
is 180° invariance ), and hence nonlinear codes are needed
for full rotational invariance.
In 1984, Wei introduced nonlinear
elements into the convolutional encoder
of the 8-state. This made the code
invariant to 90° rotations while
maintaining its coding gain of 4dB. This
TCM was adopted in the CCITT (now
ITV-T ) V.32、V.33 Recommendation
(for voice-band modem ).

Multi-dimensional TCM schemes with

90° phase invariance can be obtained
with linear codes.
 Multi-Dimensional Trellis
Coded Modulation
References:
1. S.S. Pietrobon et.al “Trellis-Coded Multidimentional Phase Modulation,”
IEEE Tran. Inform Theory, pp.63-89, Jan.1990
2. S.S. Pietrobon and D.J. Costello, Jr. “Trellis Coding with Multidimentional
QAM Signal Sets,” IEEE Tran. Inform. Theory, pp.325-336, March 1993
 Δ 0 = 0.586

2×8PSK set partition

u0 = 0 u0 = 1

Δ1 = 2 ⋅ Δ0

u1 = 0 u1 = 1

Δ2 > 2 ⋅ Δ1

u2 = 0 u2 = 1

Δ3 = 2 ⋅ Δ 2
Consider ( 2, 2, 1 ) block code. Information bits are u0 , u1 .

Consider ( 4, 4, 1 ) block code. Information bits are u0 , u1, u3 , u4 .

.
 L=2

m dm Nm (T )
m T

----------------------------------------
0 1 2 [0 1]
1 2 1 [1 1]
 Consider 2× 8PSK
y1 : the first 8PSK point y1, y2 ∈{0,1,",7}
y2 : the second 8PSK point

With modulo-2 addition

y j = 4 y 2j + 2 y1j + y00 , for j = 1,2 with yij ∈{0,1}

y1i = Z (i×2)+1
for i =0,1,2

y2i = Z (i×2)+1 ⊕ Z i×2

With modulo-8 addition
⎡ y1 ⎤ 5 ⎡ 4⎤ 4 ⎡0⎤ 3 ⎡ 2⎤
⎢ ⎥ = Z ⎢ ⎥ + Z ⎢ ⎥ + Z ⎢ ⎥
⎢⎣ y2 ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 4⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 4⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 2⎥⎦

2 ⎡0⎤ 1 ⎡1⎤ 0 ⎡ 0⎤
+Z ⎢ ⎥+Z ⎢ ⎥+Z ⎢ ⎥
⎢⎣ 2⎥⎦ ⎢⎣1⎥⎦ ⎢⎣1⎥⎦

( mod 8)
Consider 3 X 8PSK
Consider 4× 8PSK
For QAM