Multilevel coding for multiple-antenna transmission

The application of powerful coding for transmission over multiple-input/multiple-output channels is discussed. The authors emphasize that as an immediate consequence of the mutual information chain rule, multilevel coding (MLC) constitutes the optimum coded modulation scheme. On the other hand, simple bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) is only a convenient alternative for the case of two transmit and one receive antennas when combined with orthogonal space-time block codes. Starting from MLC, the authors further propose a hybrid coded modulation scheme, which favorably combines the advantages of MLC and BICM.