Minimum-Delay Decoding of Turbo-Codes for Upper-Layer FEC

TL;DR

This paper introduces a minimum-delay, on-the-fly decoding algorithm for turbo codes over the binary erasure channel, enabling immediate decoding upon symbol reception and comparing its performance with LDPC codes.

Contribution

It presents a novel decoding algorithm that reduces delay and operates in real-time for turbo codes in upper-layer error correction scenarios.

Findings

Decoding begins immediately as symbols are received.

Performance is comparable to LDPC codes across various rates.

The algorithm effectively propagates in trellises similar to message-passing in graphs.

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the decoding of parallel turbo codes over the binary erasure channel suited for upper-layer error correction. The proposed algorithm performs on-the-fly decoding, i.e. it starts decoding as soon as the first symbols are received. This algorithm compares with the iterative decoding of codes defined on graphs, in that it propagates in the trellises of the turbo code by removing transitions in the same way edges are removed in a bipartite graph under message-passing decoding. Performance comparison with LDPC codes for different coding rates is shown.