Abstract

Abstract-The performance of Turbo codes is addressed by examining the code’s distance spectrum. The “error floor ” that occurs at moderate signal-to-noise ratios is shown to be a conse-quence of the relatively low free distance of the code. It is also shown that the “error floor ” can be lowered by increasing the size of the interleaver without changing the free distance of the code. Alternatively, the free distance of the code may be increased by using primitive feedback polynomials. The excellent performance of lurbo codes at low signal-to-noise ratios is explained in terms of the distance spectrum. The interleaver in the Turbo encoder is shown to reduce the number of low-weight codewords through a process called “spectral thinning. ” This thinned distance spec-trum results in the free distance asymptote being the dominant performance parameter for low and moderate signal-to-noise ratios. Index Terms-Turbo codes, convolutional codes, distance spec-trum. T I.

Citations