Turbo-coded optical recording channels with DVD minimum mark size

Recent work on turbo codes applied to partial response (PR) optical recording channels has focused on unconstrained channels. In this paper, we consider the application of turbo codes to a (1,7) constrained, PR-equalized optical recording channel with digital versatile disc (DVD) parameters. The addition of a (1,7) run-length-limited (RLL) constraint requires the use of a soft RLL decoder to communicate with the turbo code. Although soft RLL decoders were previously developed for use with iterative decoding, application to a practical optical channel has not been addressed until now. Here, results on both correlated noise and media noise optical recording channel models are given for two PR targets, 1+D and 1+D+D/sup 2/+D/sup 3/. We achieved coding gains of 4 to 6.3 dB over a baseline RLL-coded system. We also evaluated system performance at smaller mark sizes, and found that density gains of 17% and 22% are achievable for the two targets, respectively.