Developments in Error Control Coding Techniques and some Results on Concatenated Codes

Abstract

Error control coding has gained significant importance in most of the digital communication systems since a few decades. As a result, a large variety of coding and decoding techniques, suitable for different applications and to meet different requirements, have emerged. In this paper, we have made an attempt to present an overview of the error control coding techniques by suitably classifying them and drawing a qualitative comparison between them in order to provide a design tool to the researcher. Some simulated and practically achieved performance results of some of the popular codes have been included to emphasize their utility and suitability. We have also presented here some of the important results of our studies on concatenated coding schemes which have become very important recently. The structure of codes, algorithms, the hard and soft-decision decoding and their complexities have been discussed. The parameters like bandwidth, data-rate, types of errors, BER vs SNR, coding gain and buffer requirements have also been considered in this paper.

Indexing terms:

• Error control coding
• Concatenated
• Auto-repeat-request
• Digital communication system