Improved error bounds for rate-1/2, terminated convolutional codes with QPSK in Nakagami-m fading channels

This paper presents tighter performance upper bounds for the bit error probability of terminated convolutional codes combined with QPSK modulation operating over frequency non-selective Nakagami-m fading channels. In particular, a method to derive the weight enumerators for rate-1/2, terminated convolutional codes with QPSK modulation is shown and the tighter upper bounds are derived using new weight enumerators. Simulation results prove that the derived upper bounds are tighter than the conventional upper bounds.