Low density parity check (LDPC) encoded higher order modulation

A method to map a sequence of data into modulation symbols, comprising:

• (a) separating the sequence of data into a sequence of pre-encoded data and a sequence of unencoded data;
• (b)(i) encoding the sequence of pre-encoded data using a second outer encoding algorithm to provide a sequence of outer encoded data, and (b)(ii) encoding the sequence of outer encoded data using a Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Code to provide a first sequence of encoded data;
• (c) combining a first bit increment from the sequence of unencoded data and a second bit increment from the first sequence of encoded data to provide a second sequence of encoded data;
• (d) segmenting the second sequence of encoded data into a plurality of symbol labels;
• and
• (e) assigning to each symbol label from the plurality of symbol labels a corresponding modulation symbol from a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) constellation in accordance with a specific mapping scheme,
• wherein the separating, encoding, combining segmenting and assigning are performed by one or more communication devices.