Application of Frequency-time Coding to Multicarrier Transmission Schemes

Multi-carrier modulation (MCM) techniques are used for high bit rate data transmission in radio transmission systems. The main scope of this work includes understanding a multi-carrier modulation system and setting up a simulation environment for such a system as applied in the case of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop (ADSL) system and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) system. The concept of spatial diversity as found in Space-time code is explored and a method to apply this diversity concept to a multi-carrier system is investigated. Performance levels for both a pure multi-carrier scheme and the scheme employing multi-carrier modulation with diversity are compared. The results are analyzed, the trade offs are discussed and a conclusion is drawn. It is found that the Frequency time coded DMT (FTC-DMT) is a good error correcting code but not very efficient in the use of bandwidth and hence is not usefiil for applications that focus on maximizing data rates.