Distributed Self-Concatenated Codes for Low-Complexity Power-Efficient Cooperative Communication

In this contribution, we propose a distributed binary self-concatenated coding scheme using iterative decoding (DSECCC-ID) for cooperative communications. The DSECCC-ID scheme is designed with the aid of binary extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) charts. The source node transmits SECCC symbols to both the relay and the destination nodes during the first transmission period. The relay performs SECCC-ID decoding. It then re-encodes the information bits using a recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) code during the second transmission period. The resultant symbols transmitted from the source and relay nodes can be viewed as the coded symbols of a three-component parallel-concatenated SEC CC-ID encoder. At the destination node, three component DSECCC-ID decoding is performed. It is shown that the performance of the DSECCC-ID exactly matches the EXIT chart analysis. The EXIT chart gives us an insight into operation of the distributed coding scheme which enables us to significantly reduce the transmit power of the system.