Finite Signal-set Capacity of Two-user Gaussian Multiple Access Channel

The capacity region of a two-user Gaussian Multiple Access Channel (GMAC) with complex finite input alphabets and continuous output alphabet is studied. When both the users are equipped with the same code alphabet, it is shown that, rotation of one of the user’s alphabets by an appropriate angle can make the new pair of alphabets not only uniquely decodable, but will result in enlargement of the capacity region. For this set-up, we identify the primary problem to be finding appropriate angle(s) of rotation between the alphabets such that the capacity region is maximally enlarged. It is shown that the angle of rotation which provides maximum enlargement of the capacity region also minimizes the union bound on the probability of error of the sumalphabet and vice-verse. The optimum angle(s) of rotation varies with the SNR. Through simulations, optimal angle(s) of rotation that gives maximum enlargement of the capacity region of GMAC with some well known alphabets such as M-QAM and M-PSK for some M are presented for several values of SNR. It is shown that for large number of points in the alphabets, capacity gains due to rotations progressively reduce. As the number of points N tends to infinity, our results match the results in the literature wherein the capacity region of the Gaussian code alphabet doesn’t change with rotation for any SNR.