Mapping optimization for space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding

For space-time bit-interleaved coded modulation (ST-BICM) systems with iterative decoding, the overall performance is affected by the chosen mapping. In bit-error rate (BER) curves, one mapping reaches an error floor (EF) at a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), while other mappings result in a lower EF at a higher SNR. The constellation mappings are divided into groups where each group exhibits a distinctive BER curve. We show that the convergence abscissa of the system depends on the average total bit errors and the harmonic mean of the minimum squared Euclidean distance. In this letter, we characterize all mapping groups for ST-BICM with 8-phase-shift keying and present the optimal selection for each mapping group over independent fading channels.