Hybrid ARQ scheme for UMTS LTE based on insertion convolutional turbo codes

Mobile communication systems as, e.g, UMTS LTE perform rate matching and Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) to provide adequate decoding performance over a wide range of channel conditions. In UMTS LTE this is realized by means of a fixed rate convolutional Turbo code and a rate matching scheme based on bit puncturing and bit repetition. A promising alternative to convolutional Turbo codes with simple bit repetition are Rate-Compatible Insertion Convolutional (RCIC) Turbo codes which have proven considerable performance gains in systems without HARQ. Since modern systems conventionally employ HARQ, a novel HARQ scheme for UMTS LTE based on RCIC Turbo codes is presented in this paper. Extensive simulations have demonstrated that the conventional UMTS LTE HARQ scheme is outperformed by our novel HARQ scheme in terms of system throughput.