Abstract-The effect of the companding process on QAM signals
has been under investigation for the past several years. The
compander, included in the PCM telephone network to improve
voice performance, has an unusual affect on digital QAM data
signals which are transmitted over the same channel. The quantization
noise, generated by the companding process which is multiplicative
(and asymmetric), degrades the detectability performance
of the outermost points of the QAM constellation more
than that of the inner points.
The combined effect of the companding noise and the inherent
white gaussian noise of the system, leads us to a re-examination of
signal constellation design.
In this paper we investigate the detectability performance of a
number of candidates for signal constellations including, a typical
rectangular QAM constellation, the same constellation with the
addition of a smear-desmear operation, and two new improved
QAM constellation designs with two-dimensional warpi
