M-ary phase coding for correlated Rayleigh fading channels

The work considers coded MPSK systems with non-coherent detection over correlated Rayleigh fading channels. The authors extend the results of Knopp and Lieb (1994), in which a block coded-modulation technique for non-coherent detection on AWGN channels was developed, by considering the performance of this technique in a fading environment. The performance of the maximum-likelihood decoder is studied for various fade rates using union bounding techniques and the exact expression for the pairwise error event probability. It is shown that significant performance improvements can be obtained over differentially-coherent detection with the use of little or no symbol interleaving. Finally, the author address the performance of a reduced-complexity/sub-optimal decoding strategy with the aid of computer simulations.