TURBO CODES: a tutorial on a new class of powerful error correcting coding schemes Part II: Decoder Design and Performance

This is a tutorial paper meant to introduce the reader to the new concept of turbo codes. This is a new and very powerful error correction technique which outperforms all previous known coding schemes. It can be used in any communication system where a significant power saving is required or the operating signal–to–noise ratio (SNR) is very low. Deep space communications, mobile satellite/cellular communications, microwave links, paging, etc., are some of the possible applications of this revolutionary coding technique. Part I of the paper discussed the history of turbo codes, why they are different from traditional convolutional/block codes, the turbo encoder structures and issues related to the interleaver design. Part II addresses the decoder architecture, the achievable performance for turbo codes for a wide range of coding rates and modulation techniques and discusses delay and implementation