A still further additional embodiment includes a transmitter configured to transmit signals to a receiver via a communication channel, where the transmitter, includes a coder configured to receive user bits and output encoded bits at an expanded output encoded bit rate, a mapper configured to map encoded bits to symbols in a symbol constellation, a modulator configured to generate a signal for transmission via the communication channel using symbols generated by the mapper, where the receiver, includes a demodulator configured to demodulate the received signal via the communication channel, a demapper configured to estimate likelihoods from the demodulated signal, and a decoder that is configured to estimate decoded bits from the likelihoods generated by the demapper. In addition, the symbol constellation is a PAM-16 symbol constellation having constellation points within at least one of the ranges specified in