Performance of convolutional codes with interleaving in the interference limited Rayleigh fading channel

The authors discuss and characterize factors affecting the use of error-correcting codes with bit interleaving for a channel model which includes antenna diversity in interference-limited fading radio environments. The coding gain required to compensate for the bandwidth expansion due to channel coding is investigated for binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) with coherent and with differential detection, and for orthogonal signaling with noncoherent detection. In some radio communication systems where the overall interleaving delay that can be tolerated by a user is limited, it is found that channel coding may not be practical from the viewpoint of spectrum efficiency.<<ETX>>