From source coding to MIMO : a Multi-Level Unequal Error Protection

Abstract

In this paper, unequal error protection (UEP) on different levels of the transmission system is proposed. Starting from the source coding level, two priority layers are produced, high priority (HP) and low priority (LP). At channel coding, each priority layer is turbo encoded with a coding rate that reflects its importance. For modulation, a more immune modulation mode is used to modulate the HP bit stream. Finally at the transmission level, a 3 × 3 MIMO is used, where more transmit antennas and time slots are offered to HP data. This arrangement of inequality over several levels increases the flexibility of the UEP system and leads to a better performance. Results show that the proposed system outperforms other semi-unequal and equal error protection systems over a wide range of channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), especially at low SNR values.