Maximum Likelihood Decoding of Convolutionally Coded Noncoherent ASK Signals in AWGN Channels

In this work we develop the maximum likelihood detection (MLD) algorithm for noncoherent amplitude shift keying (NCASK) systems in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels. The developed algorithm was used to investigate the performance of the NCASK system with convolutional coding and soft-decision Viterbi decoding. Tight and simple upper bounds have been derived to describe the system performance; simulation results have shown that the derived upper bounds are within 0.1 dB of the simulated points.