Rate allocation for serial concatenated convolutional codes

Abstract

The paper proposes an analytical method to solve the rate allocation problem in serial concatenated convolutional codes (SCCCs). The goal is to find the best rate allocation between the inner and the outer constituent convolutional codes of an SCCC for constant overall code rate, interleaver size and complexity. Simulation results are shown in the paper to demonstrate the optimum and superior design criteria. In addition, the ‘density evolution’ model is shown to verify the proposed rate allocation method, while indicating that a high rate inner code should not be used for SCCCs. Finally, it is also shown that the upper bounds on BER of ML decoded SCCCs do not provide good design criteria for allocating the rate in iteratively decoded SCCCs.