Constellation design for future communication systems: a comprehensive survey
IEEE Access 9 : 89778-89797 (2021)
Abstract
[EN] The choice of modulation schemes is a fundamental building block of wireless communication
systems. As a key component of physical layer design, they critically impact the expected communication
capacity and wireless signal robustness. Their design is also critical for the successful roll-out of wireless
standards that require a compromise between performance, efficiency, latency, and hardware requirements.
This paper presents a survey of constellation design strategies and associated outcomes for wireless
communication systems. The survey discusses their performance and complexity to address the need for
some desirable properties, including consistency, channel capacity, system performance, required demapping
architecture, flexibility, and independence. Existing approaches for constellation designs are investigated
using appropriate metrics and categorized based on their theoretical algorithm design. Next, their application
to different communication standards is analyzed in context, aiming at distilling general guidelines applicable
to the wireless building block design. Finally, the survey provides a discussion on design directions for future
communication system standardization processes.