Comparative Performance Analysis of Forward Error Correction Techniques Used in Wireless Communications

High bit error rates of the wireless communication medium require employing forward error correction methods on the data transferred, where usually convolutional coding techniques are utilized. As a result of their strong mathematical structure these codes are superior to their counterparts in especially real-time applications. The main decoding strategy for convolutional codes is based on the Viterbi algorithm. Common use of convolutional codes has boosted the development of different decoding schemes. These studies resulted in a new error correcting method called Turbo code. In this research work, Viterbi decoding algorithm that is the basis for forward error correction (FEC) techniques, and log-MAP and SOVA turbo decoding algorithms are studied using MATLAB software. An example image transfer application has also been realized for comparative performance analysis of these techniques. The simulation results obtained show that the log-MAP decoding algorithm achieves up to 100 times better BER performance especially for increasing SNR values than that of Viterbi algorithm.

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