Error performance analysis of generalized quadrature spatial modulation using H-8QAM

Motivated to enhance the error performance ( EP ) of generalised complex quadrature spatial modulation (GCQSM) systems, this study proposes a scheme that builds on GCQSM and uses hexagonal quadrature amplitude modulation (H-QAM) constellations which have the advantages of a maximised Euclidean distance with relatively low peak-to-average power ratio, compared to conventional QAM (C-QAM) systems. This in turn, leads to an enhancement of the EP of GCQSM schemes. The proposed scheme utilises a rotated hexagonal 8QAM (H-8QAM) set. Thus, the proposed scheme is herein named; Generalised QSM using H-8QAM (GQSM-H-8QAM). In this study, the EP of the proposed GQSM-H-8QAM scheme is investigated over Rayleigh frequency flat-fading channels with additive white Gaussian noise. Additionally, a theoretical average bit error probability ( ABEP ) expression of the GQSM-H-8QAM scheme is formulated and validated using Monte Carlo simulations. Compared to simulation results, the ABEP proves to be increasingly tight at high signal-to-noise ratio values. Obtained simulation results also show an improvement in the EP of the GQSM-H-8QAM scheme over various SM schemes like GCQSM, C-QSM and conventional-generalized spatial modulation (C-GSM), at the same spectral efficiency ( SE ). An improvement in the EP of 0.61 dB with SE of 8 bits/s/Hz is seen in 4 × 4 GQSM-H-8QAM over 4 × 4 GCQSM using C-8QAM, 2.58 dB over 4 × 4 C-QSM-C-64QAM and a gain of 4.85 dB over 4 × 4 C-GSM-C-64QAM.