COVQ for MAP hard-decision demodulated channels

We design a channel optimized vector quantizer (COVQ) for symbol-by-symbol maximum a posteriori (MAP) hard-decision demodulated channels. The main objective is to exploit the non-uniformity of the indices representing the quantized source via the MAP decoder and iteratively optimize the overall discrete channel (at the symbol level) jointly with the quantizer. We consider memoryless Gaussian and Gauss-Markov sources transmitted over a binary phase-shift keying modulated Rayleigh fading channel. Our scheme has less encoding computational and storage complexity (particularly for noisy channel conditions) than both conventional and soft-decision COVQ systems, which use hard-decision and soft-decision maximum likelihood demodulation, respectively. Furthermore, it provides a notable signal-to-distortion ratio gain over the former system, and in some cases it matches or outperforms the latter one.