Probabilistic signal shaping using multiple codebooks

Abstract

A communication system in which multiple shaping codes are selectively and iteratively used to encode a data frame such that possible energy inefficiencies associated with the use of constant-probability codes and/or transmission of dummy constellation symbols can be relatively small. In an example embodiment, the used shaping codes have different respective code rates, and a code selector of the shaping encoder operates to select one of the shaping codes by adaptively matching the rate of the code to the effective rate needed to efficiently encode the unprocessed portion of the data frame. The encoding is carried out in a manner that enables the shaping decoder to unequivocally determine the shaping codes that have been used for encoding each particular data frame based on the same rate-matching criteria as those used by the shaping encoder. At least some embodiments advantageously lend themselves to being implemented using circuits of relatively low complexity.