Unequal error protection using multiple block coded modulation

We use multiple block coded modulation (MBCM) combined with an unconventional (UC) partition and nonuniformly spaced signal points to provide unequal error protection (UEP). MBCM greatly increases the minimum squared Euclidean distance, which dominates the bit error rate (BER) at large signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). In comparison, UC partition reduces the number of nearest neighbor codewords, which significantly affects the BER at small SNRs. The nonuniformly spaced signal points are used to adjust the performance tradeoff.