2016 Volume E99.A Issue 8 Pages 1618-1621
Trellis coded modulation (TCM) concept is applied to the mode constellation points of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modulation. OAM modulation considers the multiple OAM modes as additional constellation points and maps a first part of a block of information bits to the transmitting OAM modes. Therefore, spatial multiplexing gains are retained and spectral efficiency is boosted. The second part of the block of information bits is mapped to a complex symbol using conventional digital modulation schemes. At any particular time instant, only one OAM mode is active. The receiver estimates the transmitted symbol and the active OAM mode, then uses the two estimates to retrieve the original block of data bits. Simulation reveals that with the TCM employed both for the OAM constellation points and the signal constellation points, a considerable bit error rate (BER) gain can be obtained under all turbulence conditions, compared with that of the no coding scheme.