A review on issues related to the implementation of turbo codes and space-time trellis codes

In this paper, a review of the fundamental principles of turbo coding and space-time trellis coding (STTC) is given. Turbo codes have a powerful error correction capability that approach Shannon´s capacity limit, leading to increased data rates and improved quality of service. STTC on the other hand combine channel coding and the use of multiple transmit antennas to provide temporal and space diversity for improved performance of communication links in fading channels. The paper discusses the fundamentals of the two schemes with their performance verified with simulation results. The complexity and the computational challenges involved in the real-time implementation of turbo-codes and the STTC system using top performing DSP processors are investigated. The paper ends with an investigation on the feasibility of implementing a concatenated outer turbo-coding with an inner STTC coding