Combined Polar Codes and 2-12 QAM over AWGN and Rayleigh Fading Channels

Abstract

This article investigates a communication system using polar codes combined with a 2-12 QAM modulation scheme over channels disturbed by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) as well as over channels disturbed by Rayleigh fading in addition to AWGN. The 2-12 QAM modulation is compatible with legacy 16 QAM still widely used, and when combined with appropriate error correcting codes produces results that approach the Shannon limit.