Short Frame Transmission at Very Low SNR by Associating CCSK Modulation With NB-Code

In this paper, we present a frame structure that can be viewed as a preamble for the detection and synchronization process (leading to low cost receiver) and as an encoded codeword carrying the transmitted message (leading to reliable transmission). This duality facilitates an ALOHA protocol avoiding preamble overhead. The frame structure, named Quasi-Cyclic Short Packet (QCSP), is based on the association of a Cyclic Code Shift Keying (CCSK) modulation and a non-binary error control code. The detection/correction algorithm of the QCSP system is presented, its performance is theoretically derived and discussed for different parameters. A QCSP frame can be transmitted and received correctly with an error probability of $\mathbf {10^{-4}}$ , distanced by 1.2 dB from Polyanskiy’s bound (an estimated Shannon’s limit for small packet size) at −11 dB of SNR for a payload of 360 bits. Compared to a classical preamble-based frame using a modern binary error control code, the size of a QCSP frame is reduced by 23%. Moreover, detecting a QCSP frame requires a lower complexity than detecting a longer classical preamble.