A trellis coded modulation scheme with a convolutional processor

We propose a new trellis coded modulation (TCM) scheme. The proposed TCM is encoded by employing the encoder of a convolutional code C, which is followed by a convolutional processor and a signal mapper. Large free distances can be easily achieved for the proposed TCM. The decoding can be implemented by using the trellis for the convolutional code C with some feedback information.