“Turbo DPSK”: iterative differential PSK demodulation and channel decoding

Multiple symbol differential detection is known to fill the gap between conventional differential detection of MPSK (M-DPSK) and coherent detection of M-PSK with differential encoding (M-DEPSK). Emphasis has been so far on soft-input/hard-output detectors applied in uncoded systems. In this paper, we investigate a receiver structure suitable for coded DPSK signals on static and time-varying channels. The kernel is an a posteriori probability (APP) DPSK demodulator. This demodulator accepts a priori information and produces reliability outputs. Due to the availability of reliability outputs, an outer soft-decision channel decoder can be applied. Due to the acceptance of a priori information, if the outer channel decoder also outputs reliability information, iterative (“turbo”) processing can be done. The proposed “APP DPSK demodulator” uses linear prediction and per-survivor processing to estimate the channel response. The overall transmission scheme represents a type of serial “turbo code,” with a differential encoder concatenated with a convolutional code, separated by interleaving. The investigated system has the potential to improve the performance of coherent PSK without differential encoding and perfect channel estimation for fading cases! Only a small number of iterations are required. The receiver under investigation can be applied to several existing standards without changing the transmission format. Results are presented for uncoded and convolutionally coded 4-DPSK modulation transmitted over the Gaussian channel and the Rayleigh flat-fading channel, respectively