Another look at the exact bit error probability for Viterbi decoding of convolutional codes

Författare

Irina Bocharova
Florian Hug
Rolf Johannesson
Boris Kudryashov

Summary, in English

In 1995, Best et al. published a formula for the exact bit error probability for Viterbi decoding of the rate R=1/2, memory m=1 (2-state) convolutional encoder with generator matrix G(D)=(1 1+D) when used to communicate over the binary symmetric channel. Their method was later extended to the rate R=1/2, memory m=2 (4-state) generator matrix G(D)=(1+D^2 1+D+D^2) by Lentmaier et al.

In this paper, we shall use a different approach to derive the exact bit error probability. We derive and solve a general matrix recurrent equation connecting the average information weights at the current and previous steps of the Viterbi decoding. A closed form expression for the exact bit error probability is given. Our general solution yields the expressions for the exact bit error probability obtained by Best et al. (m=1) and Lentmaier et al. (m=2) as special cases. The exact bit error probability for the binary symmetric channel is determined for various 8 and 16 states encoders including both polynomial and rational generator matrices for rates R=1/2 and R=2/3. Finally, the exact bit error probability is calculated for communication over the quantized additive white Gaussian noise channel.

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