Improving the DVB-T2 BICM performance by newly optimized Two-Dimensional Non-Uniform Constellations

This paper focuses on the potential enhancements of the DVB-T2 standard by the use of newly designed Two-Dimensional Non-Uniform Constellations (2D-NUQAM). In this work, a complete analysis of the DVB-T2 system performance when using the proposed 2D-NUQAM constellations against regular uniform (M-QAM) is presented. Based on the optimization of the Bit-interleaved Coded Modulation (BICM) capacity, the designed constellations provide a potential performance improvement of 1.05 dB for the overall DVB-T2 system performance in high order constellations. All carried out analyses are based on a complete DVB-T2 system specification simulation where equivalent 64-QAM and 256-QAM constellation and all baseline code rates have been evaluated.