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Error Perfomance Analysis of Digital

Modulation Based on the Union Bound
Robert Morelos-Zaragoza
San Jose State University
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Performance analysis (1)
The decision variables Y
1
=a
1i
+W
1
and Y
2
=a
2i
+W
2
are Gaussian
r.v.s with means a
1i
and a
2i
and equal variances N
0
/2
E{W
1
W
2
}=0, and therefore Y
1
and Y
2
are independent
Signals s
i
(t) can be represented as a vector or point in a signal
space:
a
1i
a
2i
s
i

1
(t)

2
(t)
) ( ) ( ) (
2 2 1 1
t a t a t s
i i i
+
r
i i i
E a a r +
2
2
2
1
2
i
E r
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Performance analysis (2)
Optimum decision based on minimization of error probability,
just as before
Decision regions:
Decision rule: Select if
( ) { } k i s Y s Y Y Y Y Z
k i i
< , : ,
2 2
2 1
i
Z Y
i
s s
The optimum receiver selects the signal point
that is closest to the received point
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Performance analysis (3)
The boundaries between decision regions are bisectors of lines joining pairs of
points:
FACT: In an AWGN channel, the probability of a decision error (or a symbol
error) depends only on the distance between signal points and not their
orientation:
s
1

1
(t)

2
(t)
s
2
s
3

1
(t)

2
(t)
s
1
s
2

1
(t)
s
1
s
2
Same P[]
|s
1
-s
2
|
2 |s
1
-s
2
|
2
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Performance analysis (4)
FACT: For two signal points separated by a Euclidean distance
d
12
, with transmission over an AWGN channel, the probability of
a decision error, or pairwise error probability, is given by
This is used to estimate the probability of error of any M-ary
modulation technique using the union bound:

,
_

0
2
12
12
2
] [
N
d
Q P
2 1
1 1
0
2
2 1
1 2
2
,
2
] [ ] [ j j
N
d
Q s P P
M
j
M
j
j j
j ary M

,
_

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Example: QPSK modulation (1)
s
1

1
(t)

2
(t)
(00) (01)
s
2
(11)
s
3
(10)
s
4
2
2E
a
Probability of decision error: Denote by C the event of a correct decision
a a
a
a
( )

,
_

1
1
]
1

,
_

0
2
0
2
2
2
2
1 1 ] [ 1 ] [
N
E
Q
N
E
Q C P P
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Example: QPSK modulation (2)
Bit error probability (Gray mapping)
(approximately) the same as binary (BPSK) modulation
Union bound:

,
_

0
2
] [
N
E
Q P
b
bit

,
_

,
_

0 0
2
2 ] [
N
E
Q
N
E
Q P

,
_

,
_

0 0
4
2
1 2
] [
N
E
Q
N
E
Q P
b b
bit

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Illustrating the union bound for QPSK
modulation
(b) Three constellations with a common message point and one
other message point from the original constellation.
(a) Constellation of four message points
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Appendix: The concept of signal space
Recall that the sampled output of the matched filter is equal to
the correlation between the input r(t) and the signal x(t) to
which the filter is matched to:
It can be shown that correlation plays the same role as the dot
product in a vector space:
Both signal correlation and dot product induce a metric space
There is a set of signals/vectors that are orthonormal and form
a basis
Every signal/vector in the metric space can be expressed as a
linear combination of the basis signals/vectors.
) ( ), ( ) ( ) ( ) (
0
t x t r d x r T y Y
T

n
k
i i
x r x r
1
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Metric Spaces
Vector space, V
n
Norm:
Orthogonal: Two vectors
are orthogonal if
Basis:
For any vector in V
n
Signal space, S
n
Norm:
Orthogonal: Two signals s
i
(t)
and s
j
(t) are orthogonal if
Basis:
For any signal in S
n

n
k
k
v v v v
1
2
*
v u,
0 v u
,
1

n
k
k k
e v v
{ } n k e e e e
k n
1 , 1 , , , ,
2 1
L
j i n j i e e
j i
, , 1 , 0
k k
e v v
{ } n k t t t t
k n
1 , 1 ) ( , ) ( , ), ( ), (
2 1
L

n
k
k
s t s t s t s
1
2
) ( * ), ( ) (
0 ) ( ), ( t s t s
j i
j i n j i t t
j i
, , 1 , 0 ) ( ), (

n
k
k k
t s t s
1
) ( ) (
) ( ), ( t t s s
k k