Spread-response precoding for communication over fading channels

Interleaving is an important technique for improving the effectiveness of traditional error-correcting codes in data transmission systems that exhibit multipath fading. Such channels often arise in mobile wireless communications. We present an alternative to interleaving for such systems, which we term "spread-response precoding". From the perspective of the coded symbol stream, spread-response precoding effectively transforms an arbitrary Rayleigh fading channel into a nonfading, simple white marginally Gaussian noise channel. Furthermore, spread-response precoding requires no additional power or bandwidth, and is attractive in terms of computational complexity, robustness, and delay considerations.