Hidden Markov models for burst errors in GSM and DECT channels

Digital communication systems operating over fading radio channels suffer burst errors which can be modeled by a hidden Markov process model. An approach is presented for constructing HMM models for GSM and DECT channels using waveform level simulation and the resulting set of HMM models are tabulated for realistic values of the fading channel parameters. The use of the HMM model for protocol design and evaluation is also illustrated along with a comparison of the computational requirements for the HMM model versus a detailed waveform level simulation approach. While the actual savings in computations that is possible with the use of HMM models depends on how often the parameters of the model have to be computed from waveform level simulation, it is shown that typical savings of two or more orders of magnitude are possible.