A comparison of two combining techniques for equal gain, trellis coded diversity receivers

Trellis coded modulation is widely used for digital transmission over fading channels. Classical diversity techniques are also frequently employed to combat fading. In this paper two different strategies for equal gain combining are compared, One scheme is based on an interleaved code combining technique. The alternative scheme is based on averaged diversity combining. The well known transfer function bounding technique for trellis codes is used to obtain: expressions for the bit error rate performance of the two trellis coded diversity receivers over a slowly fading Rayleigh channel. The analysis of interleaved code combining is a straightforward modification of the analysis for multiple trellis coded modulation. The analysis of averaged diversity combining is accommodated through a more involved, novel modification of the branch labeling of the error state diagram. The analytic techniques presented in this paper are supported by simulation results using a TCM scheme based on QPSK modulation and a rate-l/2 linear convolution code