Abstract
Proposed is a novel technique, hereby referred to as pilot symbol assisted coding (PSAC), where a predetermined fraction of binary pilot symbols is interspersed with the channel-coded bits at the channel coding stage, instead of multiplexing the pilots with the data symbols at the modulation stage, as in classic pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM). It is demonstrated that the PSAC succeeds in gleaning more benefits from the pilot overhead investment, than just simply the capability of channel estimation such as in the PSAM technique.