Trellis Coding for Partial-Response Channels

We consider trellis-coding techniques for improving the reliability of digital transmission over noisy partial-response channels. Such channels are commonly encountered in digital communication systems, and also play a role in devices for data recording. Concentrating on the channels with characteristics
(1 \mp D)
, we study methods to obtain codes which increase free Euclidean distance between permitted sequences of channel outputs and avoid the occurrence of unlimited runs of identical outputs at the expense of some loss in data rate. One technique employs the concept of set partitioning. The other is based on using convolutional codes designed for maximum free Hamming distance in conjunction with a precoder. Both methods lead to essentially equivalent codes.