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An Efficient Algorithm to Calculate BICM Capacity

Bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) is a practical approach for reliable communication over the AWGN channel in the bandwidth limited regime. For a signal point constellation with 2^m points, BICM labels the signal points with bit strings of length m and then treats these m bits separately both at the transmitter and the receiver. BICM capacity is defined as the maximum of a certain achievable rate. Maximization has to be done over the probability mass functions (pmf) of the bits. This is a non-convex optimization problem. So far, the optimal bit pmfs were determined via exhaustive search, which is of exponential complexity in m. In this work, an algorithm called bit-alternating convex concave method (Bacm) is developed. This algorithm calculates BICM capacity with a complexity that scales approximately as m^3. The algorithm iteratively applies convex optimization techniques. Bacm is used to calculate BICM capacity of 4,8,16,32, and 64-PAM in AWGN. For PAM constellations with more than 8 points, the presented values are the first results known in the literature.