Turbo decoding of product code based on SPC component decoding

We perform turbo/iterative decoding of linear block codes and product codes based on single-parity-check (SPC) component decoding and investigate their performances in both AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels. We also present two iteration mechanisms for decoding a product code and highlight the importance of using a scaling factor for the extrinsic information. For the Hamming code, the SPC-based turbo decoder performs comparably to a similar method that uses a maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) dual-code algorithm to decode the SPC codes. For the product code, the SPC-based turbo decoder performs better than R.M. Pyndiah's block turbo decoder (see IEEE Trans. Commun., vol.46, p.1003-10, 1998) in a Rayleigh fading channel.