Block Markov Superposition Transmission with Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation

In this letter, we construct bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) using a simple basic code but transmitting multiple times in a way similar to the block Markov superposition transmission (BMST). The system admits a sliding-window decoding/demapping algorithm that can be employed to trade off the performance against the delay. Motivated but different from BMST with binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) signalling, a simple lower bound on performance is derived from an equivalent genie-aided system. Numerical results show that the performances of the BMST systems with BICM using a (2, 1, 2) convolutional basic code match well with the derived lower bounds in lower error rate regions over both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels and Rayleigh fading channels. We also analyze the effect of the encoding memory and the decoding delay on the performance as well as the decoding complexity.