BICM-ID Labeling-Based Recipient Identification in a Heterogeneous Network

The concept of labeling-based recipient identification (LABRID) for bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) is revisited. LABRID allows addressing a message recipient station in a wireless network by using an individual labeling map without compromising error performance. This eliminates the need to use any byte of the data frame to carry the recipient address explicitly. In addition, the destination of the frame can be determined in parallel with a BICM-ID decoding procedure in the receiver’s physical layer. Therefore, the MAC layer is not involved in processing the vast majority of frames transmitted in a network. Previously, it was shown that LABRID works fine if there are only LABRID-compatible stations within the network, and every receiver can reject frames destined for other receivers. This paper considers a scenario in which LABRID-compatible BICM-ID stations and legacy BICM stations coexist in the same network. A few experiments show that the LABRID receiver can reject an old-fashioned BICM frame by judging the convergence of the iterative decoding process. It also turns out that the legacy BICM receiver can identify and dismiss the LABRID-type frames thanks to the standard cyclic redundancy check (CRC) procedure.