System and method for faster than Nyquist transmission

1. A method for operating a receiving device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the receiving device, a plurality of faster than Nyquist (FTN)-rate undecoded data streams having different reliability ratings, in a received transmission;

determining, by the receiving device, the reliability ratings for the plurality of FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission;

selecting, by the receiving device, one of the FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission in accordance with the determined reliability ratings, thereby producing a selected FTN-rate data stream;

decoding, by the receiving device, the selected FTN-rate data stream with a decoding trellis, thereby producing a data symbol;

updating, by the receiving device, the decoding trellis in accordance with the data symbol; and

repeating, by the receiving device, the selecting, the decoding, and the updating for remaining FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting one of the FTN-rate undecoded data streams in accordance with the determined reliability ratings includes selecting an FTN-rate undecoded data stream having a highest reliability rating.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting one of the FTN-rate undecoded data streams in accordance with the determined reliability ratings includes selecting an FTN-rate undecoded data stream having a reliability rating in excess of a predetermined reliability threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the reliability ratings comprises receiving the reliability ratings for the FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the reliability ratings comprises deriving the reliability ratings for the FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein deriving the reliability rating comprises evaluating each FTN-rate undecoded data stream in accordance with at least one of an FTN factor of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, a signal to noise ratio of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, a signal plus interference to noise ratio of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, a coding rate of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, or a modulation and coding scheme of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the reliability rating is a numerical value.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the reliability rating of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream is high if the signal to noise ratio of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream is high.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the reliability rating of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream is high if the coding rate of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream is low.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the reliability rating of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream is high if the FTN factor of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream is high.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising requesting a retransmission of the received transmission in response to determining that the decoding of the selected FTN-rate data stream is unsuccessful.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the decoding trellis comprises pruning trellis states in accordance with the data symbol.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving device comprises a user equipment.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving resource allocation requests from a plurality of user equipments;

scheduling resource allocations for a subset of the user equipments, wherein the resource allocations are periodic, thereby producing scheduled resources; and

transmitting information about the scheduled resources to the subset of the user equipments.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the receiving device comprises an evolved NodeB.

16. A method for operating a transmitting device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the transmitting device, a first data stream and a second data stream;

independently encoding, by the transmitting device, each data stream, wherein the independently encoded data streams have different reliability ratings;

interleaving, by the transmitting device, the independently encoded data streams, thereby producing interleaved data streams; and

transmitting, by the transmitting device, the interleaved data streams as faster than Nyquist (FTN) rate data streams in a transmitted transmission.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein interleaving the independently encoded data streams comprises periodically interleaving the independently encoded data streams.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second data stream comprises one of a pilot sequence or a reference sequence.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the transmitting device comprises an evolved NodeB.

20. A receiving device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a plurality of faster than Nyquist (FTN)-rate undecoded data stream having different reliability ratings, in a received transmission; and

a processor operatively coupled to the receiver, the processor configured to:

determine the reliability ratings for the plurality of FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission,

select one of the FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission in accordance with the determined reliability ratings, thereby producing a selected FTN-rate data stream,

decode the selected FTN-rate data stream with a decoding trellis, thereby producing a data symbol,

update the decoding trellis in accordance with the data symbol, and

repeat the select, the decode, and the update for remaining FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission.

21. The receiving device of claim 20 , wherein the processor is configured to select an FTN-rate undecoded data stream having a highest reliability rating.

22. The receiving device of claim 20 , wherein the processor is configured to select an FTN-rate undecoded data stream having a reliability rating in excess of a predetermined reliability threshold.

23. The receiving device of claim 20 , wherein the processor is configured to evaluate each FTN-rate undecoded data stream in accordance with at least one of an FTN factor of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, a signal to noise ratio of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, a signal plus interference to noise ratio of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, a coding rate of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream, or a modulation and coding scheme of the FTN-rate undecoded data stream.

24. The receiving device of claim 20 , wherein the receiver is configured to receive the reliability ratings for the FTN-rate undecoded data streams in the received transmission.

25. The receiving device of claim 20 , wherein the processor is configured to prune trellis states in accordance with the data symbol.

26. The receiving device of claim 20 , wherein the receiving device comprises a user equipment.

27. The receiving device of claim 20 , wherein the receiver is configured to receive resource allocation requests from a plurality of user equipments, wherein the processor is configured to schedule resource allocations for a subset of the user equipments, wherein the resource allocations are periodic, thereby producing scheduled resources, and wherein the receiving device further comprises a transmitter operatively coupled to the processor, the transmitter configured to transmit information about the scheduled resources to the subset of the user equipments.

28. The receiving device of claim 27 , wherein the receiving device comprises an evolved NodeB.