• BER & Coding Schemes

The most common effect of noise is to force the detector to detect the wrong bit (bit
inversion), that is, a 0 is detected as a 1, and a 1 is detected as a 0. In this case the
information channel that arises is called a binary symmetric channel or BSC where
is the probability of error (also called
􀀀􀀀_ _ _􀀀_ _ __ _ 􀀀􀀀_ _ _􀀀_ _ __ _ _

bit error probability, bit error rate (BER), or “crossover” probability) and the output
alphabet is also the set of binary digits . The parameter fully defines the behaviour
􀀀__ __ _

of the channel. The BSC is an important channel for digital communication

systems as noise present in physical transmission media (fibre optic cable, copper
wire, etc.) typically causes bit inversion errors in the receiver.

Error Probability Analysis for Convolutional Codes

Bit error rate (BER) performance is a straightforward measure of the error-correction
capability
of any coding technique, and of course of convolutional codes. The most useful error
probability
measure is the bit error probability,

Code rate; Fundamentals pg201

binary block codes, that is, both the channel coder inputs and outputs
will be in binary and fixed-length block codes will be used. Since a digital communication
system uses a binary channel (most typically a BSC) and the source coder
will encode the source to a binary code, then the intervening channel coder will code
binary messages to binary codes.

Good coding efficiency is necessary to minimize bandwidth.

7. Error-detection or correction capability is necessary for high-quality
performance.

Decoding: The coded signal must be capable of being uniquely decoded to produce the
original binary information signal (with no ambiguity).

The probability of receiving errors for a specific modulation scheme depends

on the S/N at the receiver and the transmission bit rate.++

This is analogous
to a person speaking over a noisy telephone line. If that person includes some
repetitions from time to time (adding redundancy), the message is clarified
without any need for the receiving party to ask for a repeat.
 Summary
This chapter implements the encoding and decoding algorithms of convolutional codes.
It discusses the simulation of the bit error rate (BER) of convolution codes. The chapter
observes the changes in the coded BER according to the parameter of the convolutional
code. It provides step‐by‐step code exercises and instructions to implement execution
sequences. The encoder is implemented by user‐defined MATLAB function. The
chapter implements soft decision decoding, with which the decision variables (r) for the
coded bits that consist of both the received signal and noise are directly passed to the
decoder. To implement soft decision decoding, only the part that calculates the distance
variable in dec.m needs to be modified. The chapter defines channel symbol as the
received symbol through the channel. It is designed to help teach and understand
communication systems using a classroom‐tested, active learning approach.

Simulate the link by following these steps:

 Generate binary data.

 Encode the data with a rate 2/3 convolutional code.
 Modulate the encoded data.
 Pass the signal through an AWGN channel.
 Demodulate the received signal.
 Decode the demodulated signal by using a Viterbi decoder.
 Collect the error statistics.