LDPC-based channel coding of correlated sources with iterative joint decoding

This letter considers low-density parity-check (LDPC) coding of correlated binary sources and a novel iterative joint channel decoding without communication of any side information. We demonstrate that depending on the extent of the source correlation, additional coding gains can be obtained. Two stages of iterative decoding are employed. During global iterations, updated estimates of the source correlation are obtained and passed on to the sum-product decoder that performs local iterations with a predefined stopping criterion and/or a maximum number of local decoding iterations. Simulation results indicate that very few global iterations (2-5) are sufficient to reap significant benefits from implicit knowledge of source correlation. Finally, we provide analytical performance bounds for our iterative joint decoder and comparisons with sample simulation results.     

Transceiver Front-End Technology for Software Radio Implementation of Wideband Satellite Communication Systems

The evolution of satellite communication systems for the design of both the satellite’s communication payload and the ground-station are towards the implementation of such systems using the Software Radio (SR) technology. This paper focuses on a key element of the SR, that is, the wideband front-end which still poses the greatest technological challenge for design and proliferation of SR. In particular, we look at the front-end architecture of wideband receivers, outline the key aspects of the design of such front-end systems, specify the performance metrics associated with their design, present an architecture of a promising wideband analog to digital converter, and finally present the results of our design, implementation, and test campaign of a prototype PC-based SR system. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High-rate recursive convolutional codes for concatenated channel codes

This letter presents the results of the search for optimum punctured recursive convolutional codes (RCCs) of rate k/k+1, for k=2,...,8, suitable for concatenated channel codes whose constituent encoders are recursive, systematic convolutional codes. The mother codes that are punctured are rate-1/2 RCCs proposed for use in parallel and/or serial concatenation schemes. Extensive tables of systematic and nonsystematic puncturing patterns, optimized relative to various objective functions suitable for concatenated channel codes, are presented for several mother codes.     

An extensive search for good punctured rate-k/(k+1) recursive convolutional codes for serially concatenated convolutional codes

In many practical applications requiring variable-rate coding and/or high-rate coding for spectral efficiency, there is a need to employ high-rate convolutional codes (CC), either by themselves or in a parallel or serially concatenated scheme. For such applications, in order to keep the trellis complexity of the code constant and to permit the use of a simplified decoder that can accommodate multiple rates, a mother CC is punctured to obtain codes with a variety of rates. This correspondence presents the results of extensive search for optimal puncturing patterns for recursive convolutional codes leading to codes of rate k/(k+1) (k an integer) to be used in serially concatenated convolutional codes (SCCC). The code optimization is in the sense of minimizing the required signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for two target bit-error rate (BER) and two target frame-error rate (FER) values. We provide extensive sample simulation results for rate-k/(k+1) SCCC codes employing our optimized punctured CC.     

Reduced complexity interleaver growth algorithm for turbo codes

This paper is focused on the problem of significantly reducing the complexity of the recursive interleaver growth algorithm (IGA) with the goal of extending the range of applicability of the algorithm to significantly larger interleavers for a given CPU time and processor. In particular, we present two novel modifications to IGA changing the complexity order of the algorithm from O(N/sub max//sup 4/) to O(N/sub max//sup 2/), present several further minor modifications reducing the CPU time albeit not fundamentally changing the complexity order, and present a mixed mode strategy that combines the results of complexity reduction techniques that do not alter the algorithm outcome itself, with a novel transposition value set cardinality constrained design that does modify the optimization results. The mixed strategy can be used to further extend the range of interleaver sizes by changing the complexity order from O(N/sub max//sup 2/) to O(N/sub max/) (i.e., linear in the interleaver size). Finally, we present optimized variable length interleavers for the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standards outperforming the best interleavers proposed in the literature.     

Optimized turbo codes for delay constrained applications

We present the results of the optimization applied to the design of interleavers for rate-1/n parallel concatenated convolutional codes (PCCC) tailored to specific recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) constituent codes. The emphasis is on low-latency codes associated with interleavers of block length less than or equal to 160. The error floors of the optimized codes are significantly lower than those associated with the use of random interleavers. The distance spectra of the equivalent block codes resulting from trellis termination applied to PCCC are evaluated and used to obtain asymptotic bit error rate (BER) curves for the optimized codes     

Interleaver pruning for construction of variable-length turbo codes

In this paper, we address the issue of pruning (i.e., shortening) a given interleaver in a parallel concatenated convolutional code (PCCC). The principle goal of pruning is that of construction of variable-length and hence delay interleavers with application to PCCC, using the same structure (possibly in hardware) of the interleaver and deinterleaver units. As a side benefit, it is sometimes possible to reduce the interleaver length and hence delay for nearly the same and sometimes even better asymptotic performance. In particular, we present a systematic technique for interleaver pruning and demonstrate the average optimality of the strategy. Sample simulation results are presented confirming the average optimality of the proposed scheme.     

Permutation fixed points with application to estimation of minimumdistance of turbo codes

We present a systematic technique for obtaining all the input sequences that are mapped by a given permutation either to themselves or to shifted versions of themselves (generically called permutation fixed points). Such sequences or their subsets, represent the primary candidates for examination in connection with obtaining estimates of the minimum distance of parallel concatenated codes, specially for interleaver lengths for which the determination of the actual minimum distance may be very difficult. Subsequently, we present a new class of permutations that nearly achieve the lower bound on the number of possible fixed points associated with a given permutation of prime length p. Preliminary experimental evidence suggests that certain permutations of this class lead to turbo codes with large minimum distances fur short interleaver lengths     

Linear subcodes of turbo codes with improved distance spectra

In this correspondence, we present a technique for generation of linear subcodes of a given turbo code with better distance spectrum than the original mother turbo code, via an iterative process of trace-bit injection which minimally reduces code rate, followed by selective puncturing that allows recovery of the rate loss incurred during the trace-bit injection. The technique allows for asymptotic performance improvement of any linear turbo code. In effect, we trim the distance spectrum of a turbo code via elimination of the low distance and/or high multiplicity codewords from the output space of the code. To this end, we perform a greedy minimization of a cost function closely related to the asymptotic bit error probability (or frame error probability) of the code. This improves the performance of the code everywhere, but its main impact is a reduction in the error floor of the turbo code which is important for delay constrained applications employing short interleavers.     

Optimized prunable single-cycle interleavers for turbo codes

This paper is aimed at the problem of designing optimized interleavers for parallel concatenated convolutional codes (PCCC) that satisfy several requirements simultaneously: 1) designing interleavers tailored to the constituent codes of the PCCC; 2) improving the distance spectra of the resulting turbo codes which dominate their asymptotic performance; 3) constructing optimized interleavers recursively so that they are implicitly prunable; and 4) completely avoiding short permutation cycles in order to reduce the risk of having strong correlations between the extrinsic information during iterative decoding. To this end, we present two theorems that lead to a modification of a previously developed iterative interleaver growth algorithm (IGA) that can be used to design optimized variable-length interleavers, whereby at every length the optimized permutation implemented by the interleaver is a single-cycle permutation. Two more modifications of the IGA are presented to improve the performance of the optimized interleavers at a reduced complexity. The optimization is achieved via constrained minimization of a cost function closely related to the asymptotic bit-error rate or frame-error rate of the code.