Turbo Codes For Binary Markov Channels

We describe parallel concatenated codes for communication over binary-input, binary-output hidden Markov channels. We present encoder design techniques and decoder processing modifications that utilize the a priori statistics of the channel and show that the resulting codes allow reliable communication at rates which are above the capacity of a memoryless channel with the same stationary bit error probability as the Markov channel. These codes outperform systems based on the traditional approach of using a channel interleaver to create a channel which is assumed to be memoryless. In addition, we introduce a joint estimation/decoding method that allows the estimation of the parameters of the Markov model when they are not known a priori. I. Introduction Many practical communications channels can be modeled using discrete Markov channels. Such channels are characterized by a set of states S j ; 0 j S \Gamma 1, the matrix of transition probabilities among states, and the list giving th..