Determinate state convolutional codes

A determinate state convolutional code is formed from a conventional convolutional code by pruning away some of the possible state transitions in the decoding trellis. This staged power transfer proves to be an extremely efficient way of enhancing the performance of a concatenated coding system. The authors analyze the decoding complexity and free distances of these new codes, determine some important statistical properties of the decoder output, and provide simulation results for performance at the low signal-to-noise ratios where a real communications system would operate. Several concise, practical examples are presented.<
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