Performance analysis of superposition coded modulation

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of superposition coded modulation (SCM). Two types of SCM schemes, i.e., the single-code SCM (SC-SCM) and multi-code SCM (MC-SCM), are analyzed. The basic features of SCM are described, followed by the information-theoretic analysis. Different encoding/decoding strategies are compared from the capacity point of view. A semi-analytical evolution technique is proposed to track the convergence behavior of iterative decoding. Analytical error-rate analysis is then conducted to predict the asymptotic performance. Numerous examples demonstrate that the analysis tools discussed in this paper can provide reasonably accurate performance prediction for SCM schemes.