Generalized array codes for wireless image communication in presence of fading

A new trellis decoding method of block codes based on the generalized array codes (GACs) structure over a Rayleigh fading channel is presented. Further researches are also carried out to introduce this GAC-based decoding method to an image communication system. Several GACs, code (8, 4, 4) and its shortened code (7, 4, 3), code (16, 5, 8) and its shortened code (15, 5, 7), code (15, 9, 4) and code (30, 19, 4) with the same minimum Hamming distance, are considered in the system. The results show that the minimum Hamming distance is the key factor of the error-correction capability of GAC rather than the coding length in a Rayleigh fading channel. Furthermore, under the soft decision trellis decoding strategy, the quality of the image, whether uncompressed or DCT-compressed, is greatly improved with the help of the GAC.