Channel Coding in Communication Networks : From Theory to Turbo Codes

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the subject of channel coding. It starts with a description of information theory, focusing on the quantitative measurement of information and introducing two fundamental theorems on source and channel coding. The basics of channel coding in two chapters, block codes and convolutional codes, are then discussed, and for these the authors introduce weighted input and output decoding algorithms and recursive systematic convolutional codes, which are used in the rest of the book.

Trellis coded modulations, which have their primary applications in high spectral efficiency transmissions, are then covered, before the discussion moves on to an advanced coding technique called turbocoding. These codes, invented in the 1990s by C. Berrou and A. Glavieux, show exceptional performance. The differences between convolutional turbocodes and block turbocodes are outlined, and for each family, the authors present the coding and decoding techniques, together with their performances. The book concludes with a chapter on the implementation of turbocodes in circuits.

As such, anyone involved in the areas of channel coding and error correcting coding will find this book to be of invaluable assistance.

Alain Glavieux, was an Associate Professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne (ENST Bretagne), where he lectured in signal processing and communication theory and set up a digital communications research group. He was appointed Professor in 1989, and became Head of the Signals and Communications Department in 1994. In 1998, he took charge of ENST Bretagne's Corporate Relations with Industry and, in 2002, became Head of the CNRS laboratory Algorithmic and Hardware Processing of Information, Communications and Knowledge. In 2003, he was appointed assistant director of ENST Bretagne.
Together with Professor Claude Berrou, Alain Glavieux developed a new family of error correction codes called turbo codes. He also pioneered the principle of turbo equalization.
He received an IEEE Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation in 1998, the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 2003, and the French Academy of Sciences Grand Prix France Telecom in 2003.
He passed away after a long illness on September 25th, 2004 at the age of 55.