Study of turbo codes across space time spreading channel

This thesis deals with an application of turbo codes across Space Time Spreading Channel. This is done by undertaking a study into the extent to which these error correction codes can reduce the bit error rate across the space time spreading channel. Both the turbo codes and space time channel have been developed in Matlab�s Simulink. The thesis starts with an introduction to turbo codes which is presented on the basis of classical turbo codes introduced by Berrou et al in 1993 (Berrou et al., 1993). This is illustrated by some examples of their performance across the Additive White Gaussian Noise Channel (AWGN). Then a detailed description of the Space Time Spreading (STS) channel and the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) turbo codes. Using the UMTS turbo codes this thesis produces simulation results showing to what extent they reduce the bit error rate of the STS channel. A description of the system in Simulink and Matlab is presented. The simulation results show that UMTS turbo codes applied on the top of the STS channel can improve the bit error rate performance by approximately 5dB. This is done at the expense of increased complexity and reduced effective data rate.