PhD Thesis

“Block Turbo Codes for next generation optical communications”

PhD Director : Professor Ramesh PYNDIAH

Supervisor : Luiz ANET NETO
PhD : starts between 1st September 2021 and 1st January 2022
I. Introduction
During the last decade, the demand for ultra-high data rate optical communications capacity
has experienced near exponential growth for local access networks and also long distance networks
(trans-continent, inter-city,..). The demand for higher capacity is due to the growth of the internet
traffic (video streaming, social networks and so on). This traffic is expected to expand during the
next decade with the introduction of 5G networks and professional (or domestic) optical access
network services. In order to meet these requirements during the last decade many major
innovations have been introduced [1]: Monochromatic laser, wavelength division multiplexing
(WDM), Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) compensation, coherent optical transmission
coupled to advanced modulation/demodulation schemes and Forward Error Correction (FEC). To
meet future capacity requirements using existing optical fiber networks major improvements in
terms of spectral efficiency (bits per second per unit hertz) and energy efficiency (energy per
transmitted bit) are mandatory. In this project we shall focus on FEC [2] and more specifically on
Reed-Solomon (RS) Block Turbo Codes (BTC). RS codes have been adopted in several optical
domain applications including first generation WDM submarine links (ITU-T G.975), Optical
transport Networks (OTN, ITU-T G.709) as well as in more performing concatenated schemes used
in dense WDM (DWDM) optical links (ITU-T G.975.1). RS code is also often adopted in currently
deployed Gigabit and 10 Gigabit symmetric capable optical access networks (ITU-T G.984.2 and
G.9807.1 amendment 1). Turbo coding on the other hand have been reported to achieve coding-
gains in excess of 10 dB at 10 Gbps in third generation optical longhaul systems [6].
BTC was first introduced in 1994 [3]. It is based on the iterative decoding of serially
concatenated BCH codes also known as product codes invented by Peter Elias [4] in 1954. Soft
Input Soft Output (SISO) decoding of the row codewords and column codewords are preformed
sequentially several times to achieve near Shannon limit performance (< 1dB) in terms of Bit Error
Rate (BER). BCH-BTC are mainly used for proprietary professional applications.
In 2004 the BTC concept was extended to RS codes [5]. RS-BTC using the Chase-Pyndiah
algorithm for SISO decoding of RS single error correcting (t=1) row codewords and column
codewords achieve near Shannon limit performance (< 1 dB). The RS-BTC can achieve high code
rates (R > 0.9) for significantly smaller block size (factor of 3) than BCH-BTC with comparable
code rate. As for BCH-BTC the rows and columns can be decoded in parallel to achieve very high
speed decoding. BTC is more and more used for high speed optical communications by several
companies in the US and China.
II. Objectives
The first objective of this project is to extend the RS-BTC to expurgated single error
correcting RS codes and eventually to double error correcting RS codes. RS single error correcting
codes have a minimum Hamming distance (MHD) of 3 which results in a product code with MHD
of 9 (3x3=9). Expurgating the code (transforms one information symbol into a redundancy symbol)
increases the MHD by one and thus the resulting product code has a MHD of 16 (4x4). Additional
coding gain of more than 2 dB is expected for a slight reduction in code rate. The Chase-Pyndiah
Algorithm is not able to achieve near Shannon limit performance using expurgated t=1 RS codes

1
with reasonable complexity [7]. Since 1996 different authors have investigated new SISO
algorithms for expurgated t=1 RS codes but at this time there is no satisfactory solution in terms of
performance/complexity trade-off to this problem to the best of our knowledge. In this first part of
the project we shall investigate new algorithms to perform SISO decoding of expurgated t=1 RS
codes and evaluate performance of associated product codes.
Second objective of this project is to investigate the association of Q-ary symbols of the RS
code with M-ary modulation symbols used for data transmission. The classical way of doing this is
to use Q-ary to binary representation followed by binary to M-ary Gray mapping in transmitter. In
receiver soft demapping of received M-ary symbols into binary symbols is performed which are
then processed using the Chase-Pyndiah algorithm. In this project we shall investigate new
solutions for mapping Q-ary RS symbols on M-ary modulation symbols. In the case M=Q we can
use a direct mapping without using intermediate binary representation. Between these two extreme
cases there are many intermediate possibilities to be investigated.
III. Requirements
For this project the candidate must have a Masters degree recognized in France with
knowledge in digital communications, signal processing and forward error correction. Experience
on turbo codes or optical communications will be an advantage.
Candidate should have experience in C programming and demonstrate strong motivation for
team work. French language is not mandatory but candidate must be motivated to learn French
during PhD. Frequent interaction with industrial partners of the laboratory is expected during PhD
specially for validation of prototypes eventually.
IV. References
[1] Agrawal, G. P. (2002). Fiber-optic communication systems. Singapore: Wiley 2002.
[2] ITU G.795.1 Telecommunication standardization, February 2004.
[3] R. Pyndiah, “Near optimum decoding of product codes : block turbo codes,” IEEE Trans.
on Communications, Vol. 46, n° 8, August 1998.
[4] P. Elias, 1954.
[5] ZHOU Rong, PICART Annie, PYNDIAH Ramesh. “Potential Applications of low
Complexity Non-Binary High Code Rate Block Turbo Codes”, MILCOM’04 - USA Monterey -
October 2004, 2004.
[6] A. Tychopoulos, O. Koufopavlou and I. Tomkos, "FEC in optical communications - A tutorial
overview on the evolution of architectures and the future prospects of outband and inband FEC for
optical communications," in IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 79-86, Nov.-
Dec. 2006, doi: 10.1109/MCD.2006.307281.
[7] O. Aitsab and R. Pyndiah, “Performance of Reed-Solomon block turbo code,” IEEE
GLOBECOM '96 Conference, vol 1/3, pp 121-125, London, Nov. 1996.

V. Contact
Pr. Ramesh PYNDIAH
Email : Ramesh.pyndiah@imt-atlantique.fr
Homepage : https://www.imt-atlantique.fr/fr/personne/ramesh-pyndiah