Decision feedback differential detection of differentially encoded 16APSK signals

Multiple-symbol differential detection (DD) with reference signal estimation based on the feedback of past detected symbols is presented for differentially encoded 16-level amplitude/phase shift keying (16DAPSK). A suboptimal decision is derived. The approximate analysis of the bit-error rate (BER) performance taking into account the decision error propagation effect is presented in an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel and the BER performance is compared with those of 16DPSK and 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM).