An FPGA realization of simplified turbo decoder architecture

Abstract

The key issue of applying Turbo codes is to find an efficient implementation of turbo decoder. This paper addresses the implementation of a simplified and efficient turbo decoder in field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. A simplified and efficient implementation of a Turbo decoder with minor performance loss has been proposed. An integer Turbo decoder based on the standard 2’s complement number system after considering the issues of dynamic range, truncation effect and other algorithm related subjects has been introduced. The efficient implementation comes from algorithm modification, integer arithmetic and compact hardware management. Based on the Max-Log-MAP decoding algorithm, the branch metric is modified by weighting a priori value, resulting in a significant BER improvement. The Turbo decoder takes in 8-level integer inputs generates 7-bit soft-decisions and calculates all metrics on integers, avoiding complex floating point or fixed-point arithmetic. By manipulating memory address, delay associated with interleaving and de-interleaving is eliminated, resulting in much higher throughput. Also, by taking advantage of identical decoder function, Turbo decoder is implemented in a single-decoder structure, making efficient use of memory and logic cells. Key words: Turbo, Max-Log-MAP, field programmable gate array, bit error ratio.