ACSP-TR-12-03-02

    Exploiting Low-rate Information for Transmission
    over Unknown Fading Channels

    Zhiyu Yang and Lang Tong

    Abstract
    We consider the transmission over an unknown frequency-selective
    channel of two independent sources with different characteristics:
    one source (such as voice) has a low information rate with a strict
    delay constraint; the other (such data) has a high rate but without
    any delay constraints. We assume that, due to the delay
    requirements, the low-rate source must be decoded first and below
    a certain error probability. We study a communication system in
    which pilot symbols are not present and the low-rate information is
    decoded non-coherently. The decoded low-rate codewords are
    then used for channel estimation to facilitate coherent decoding of
    the high-rate source. For a fixed detection error probability of the
    low-rate source, we derive achievable rate expressions for the
    high-rate source. We demonstrate a convergence behavior of the
    achievable rate of the high-rate source as the decision error
    probability of the low-rate source goes to zero. Numerical results
    show that the achievable rate of the high-rate source converges to
    that achievable by a training-based scheme at moderate decision
    error levels.