Generalized type II hybrid ARQ scheme using punctured convolutional coding

A method is presented to construct rate-compatible convolutional (RCC) codes from known high-rate punctured convolutional codes, obtained from best-rate 1/2 codes. The construction method is rather simple and straightforward, and still yields good codes. Moreover, low-rate codes can be obtained without any limit on the lowest achievable code rate. Based on the RCC codes, a generalized type-II hybrid ARQ scheme, which combines the benefits of the modified type-II hybrid ARQ strategy of J. Hagenauer (1988) with the code-combining ARQ strategy of D. Chase (1985), is proposed and analyzed. With the proposed generalized type-II hybrid ARQ strategy, the throughput increases as the starting coding rage increases, and as the channel degrades, it tends to merge with the throughput of rate 1/2 type-II hybrid ARQ schemes with code combining, thus allowing the system to be flexible and adaptive to channel conditions, even under wide noise variations and severe degradations