Improving channel coding of the ETSI- and MPEG-satellite transmission standards

We propose the combination of two powerful decoding techniques in one concatenated coding scheme. Using turbo codes as inner codes and block codes as outer codes, and applying parallel and serial iterative decoding with feedback between the outer and the inner decoders, leads to a performance which clearly surpasses the one of common concatenated coding schemes used for deep space communications or digital TV transmissions via satellite as defined by ETSI and MPEG. At a BER of 10 ^-5 and below, we achieve an additional decoding gain of 1.6 dB and more at the same rate and frame size as existing standards