Joint channel coding and modulation in wireless systems

1. A first device comprising:

a receiver configured to:

receive a first pilot signal from a second device, wherein the first pilot signal is associated with a first transmit antenna of the second device; and

receive a second pilot signal from the second device, wherein the second pilot signal is associated with a second transmit antenna of the second device;

a processor configured to:

determine, based on the first pilot signal and the second pilot signal, channel related information associated with an antenna pair;

determine a set-partition based on at least the channel related information and a spatial or antenna based modulation; and

configure, based on the determined set-partition, a dynamically configurable trellis coded modulation (TCM) decoder to decode data received from the second device; and

a transmitter configured to send feedback to the second device indicating the determined set-partition.

2. The first device of claim 1 , wherein, when determining the set-partition, the processor is configured to:

partition a higher order signal space constellation into a first group of lower order constellation subsets, wherein the higher order signal space constellation includes a plurality of constellation points, and wherein each of the plurality of constellation points is assigned to a respective constellation subset in the first group;

partition each of the constellation subsets in the first group into a second group of constellation subsets, wherein each of the plurality of constellation points in each of the constellation subsets in the first group is assigned to a respective constellation subset in the second group; and

map a set of bits to the plurality of constellation points assigned to the second group of constellation subsets.

3. The first device of claim 2 , wherein a minimum distance between the plurality of constellation points is increased with each partitioning, and wherein the first group of constellation subsets and the second group of constellation subsets have a same respective number of constellation points as the higher order signal space constellation.

4. The first device of claim 1 , wherein, when determining the set-partition, the processor is configured to:

determine one or more spatial correlation coefficients for a set of transmit antennas that includes the first transmit antenna and the second transmit antenna; and

determine, based on the one or more spatial correlation coefficients, a plurality of subsets of the set of transmit antennas, wherein a minimum distance between transmit antennas in each subset of the plurality of subsets is maximized.

5. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the channel related information comprises one or more channel cross correlation coefficients.

6. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the feedback enables the second device to configure a dynamically configurable TCM encoder of the second device that corresponds to the dynamically configurable TCM decoder of the first device.

7. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the feedback includes one or more of the channel related information and an antenna index associated with the determined set-partition, and wherein the feedback is sent via one or more of a control channel and a PHY header.

8. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the antenna pair is a transmit/receive antenna pair, and wherein the first pilot signal is associated with a first transmit antenna pattern, and wherein the second pilot signal is associated with a second transmit antenna pattern.

9. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the first device is a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), and the second device is an eNodeB, an access point (AP), or a base station.

10. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the first pilot signal is associated with one or more of a first antenna pattern and a first antenna polarization, and wherein the second pilot signal is associated with one or more of a second antenna pattern and a second antenna polarization.

11. The first device of claim 1 , wherein the receiver is configured to receive the data from the second device, and

wherein the processor is configured to:

determine an estimated antenna index,

map the estimated antenna index to a bit sequence of the data, and

decode the mapped bit sequence using the dynamically configurable TCM decoder.

12. A method of joint coded modulation comprising:

receiving a first pilot signal from a device, wherein the first pilot signal is associated with a first transmit antenna of the device;

receiving a second pilot signal from the device, wherein the second pilot signal is associated with a second transmit antenna of the device;

determining, based on the first pilot signal and the second pilot signal, channel related information associated with an antenna pair;

determining a set-partition based on at least the channel related information and a spatial or antenna based modulation;

configuring, based on the determined set-partition, a dynamically configurable Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM) decoder to decode data received from the device; and

sending feedback to the device indicating the determined set-partition.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining the set-partition comprises:

partitioning a higher order signal space constellation into a first group of lower order constellation subsets, wherein the higher order signal space constellation includes a plurality of constellation points, and wherein each of the plurality of constellation points is assigned to a respective constellation subset in the first group;

partitioning each of the constellation subsets in the first group into a second group of constellation subsets, wherein each of the plurality of constellation points in each of the constellation subsets in the first group is assigned to a respective constellation subset in the second group; and

mapping a set of bits to the plurality of constellation points assigned to the second group of constellation subsets.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein a minimum distance between the plurality of constellation points is increased with each partitioning, and wherein the first group of constellation subsets and the second group of constellation subsets have a same respective number of constellation points as the higher order signal space constellation.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining the set-partition comprises:

determining one or more spatial correlation coefficients for a set of transmit antennas that includes the first transmit antenna and the second transmit antenna; and

determining, based on the one or more spatial correlation coefficients, a plurality of subsets of the set of transmit antennas, wherein a minimum distance between transmit antennas in each subset of the plurality of subsets is maximized.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the channel related information comprises one or more channel cross correlation coefficients.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the feedback enables the device to configure a dynamically configurable TCM encoder that corresponds to the dynamically configurable TCM decoder.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the feedback includes one or more of the channel related information and an antenna index associated with the determined set-partition, and wherein the feedback is sent via one or more of a control channel and a PHY header.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein the antenna pair is a transmit/receive antenna pair, and wherein the first pilot signal is associated with a first transmit antenna pattern, and wherein the second pilot signal is associated with a second transmit antenna pattern.

20. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving the data from the device;

determining an estimated antenna index;

mapping the estimated antenna index to a bit sequence of the data; and

decoding the mapped bit sequence using the dynamically configurable TCM decoder.