Distributed Three-Stage Concatenated Irregular Convolutional, Unity-Rate and Space-Time Trellis Coding for Single-Antenna Aided Cooperative Communications

In this contribution, we propose a Distributed Concatenated Irregular Convolutional Coded Unity Rate Coded and Space Time Trellis Coded (DC-IrCC-URC-STTC) scheme for cooperative communications employing multiple single-antenna relays. Each coding arrangement is designed for efficient decoding convergence by employing non-binary Extrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) charts. The source node transmits two-stage IrCC-URC encoded symbols to two relays during the first transmission period. Then each relay performs two-stage URC-IrCC decoding and re-encodes the information bits using the three-stage concatenated coding scheme IrCC-URC-STTC. However, only the signals of one predefined STTC output are transmitted from each relay to the destination node during the second transmission period. At the destination, the received signals are treated as if they arrived from one transmitter employing STTC using two co-located transmit antennas. The simulation results show that the Monte-Carlo based performance of the DC-IrCC-URC-STTC scheme exactly matches the EXIT-chart analysis. It also performs closely to its idealised counterpart that assumes perfect decoding at the relays when an EXIT-chart based optimal algorithm is applied for selecting relays.