Performance analysis of fractal modulation transmission over fast-fading wireless channels

Fractal modulation schemes have been under investigation for signal transmission over time-varying channels because of their advantages in data transmission at different frequency bands. This also allows efficient reception when channel conditions are varying by selecting the optimal frequency/time resolution based on the current channel condition. We present a performance analysis of fractal modulation transmission over Rician fast-fading channels in the presence of AWGN. A quadrature transmission scheme is simulated and compared, in terms of error robustness, to a QAM transmission system. Other papers analysing fractal modulation system performance do not consider time-varying channels, which are important as they represent the main configuration for communication systems based on this modulation technique. The novelty of our paper lies in the comparison of a fractal modulation system to a QAM one (core of the OFDM modulation technology, extensively used in broadcasting) using a testbed simulation environment where additive noise and fast fading are considered as typical error sources for transmission over wireless channels. Several wavelet families for a fractal modulation scheme have been considered and performance for each one measured; results reported show the effectiveness of the fractal modulation paradigm and confirm its effective utilization in data broadcasting.