Hierarchical channel coding for broadcasting employing GC-codes

Hierarchical channel codes are used for unequal error protection of hierarchically ordered data to achieve self-adapting properties in varying channel conditions. We apply a new capacity and cut-off rate criterion for generalized concatenated codes (GC-codes) derived from results for multilevel codes in order to construct good hierarchical channel codes for the binary symmetric broadcast channel. The superiority of joint coding in a hierarchical channel coding scheme based on GC-codes over the commonly used time-sharing construction is shown.