Compact, high-speed and high-coding-gain general purpose FEC encoder/decoder-NUFEC codec

A novel universal forward error correction (NUFEC) scheme, comprising direct high-coding-rate convolutional code generators and variable-rate Viterbi decoders, is proposed. To make this NUFEC scheme available in various communication systems, three kinds of CMOS VLSIs have been developed. They can operate up to 25 Mb/s and are easily applicable to various coding-rate convolutional codes. Furthermore, by using these NUFEC VLSIs, a compact, high-speed, and high-coding-gain FEC codec (NUFEC codec) has been developed. Experimental results on the Pe performance of this codec have shown powerful coding gains of 5.5, 4.5, 3.4, and 2.2 dB at Pe=1*10/sup -6/ in coding rates of 1/2, 3/4, 7/8, and 15/16, respectively.<<ETX>>