INTERLEAVING AND

CONCATENATED
CODES
 CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• INTERLEAVING
• BLOCK INTERLEAVING
• CONVOLUTIONAL INTERLEAVING
• CONCATENATED CODES
COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
1. MEMORYLESS
The codes used here are designed to combat
random independent error.
2.WITH MEMORY
A channel that has memory is one that
exhibits mutually dependent signal
transmission error.
• Eg.Multipath fading
• The cumulative signal received is distorted.
• The disturbances like Ionospheric
propagation,switching and burst noise in
channels results in statistical dependency
among successive symbols.
• These disturbences lead to burst error instead
of isolated error.
• So,under the assumption that the channel has
memory we can’t say that the errors are
randomly distributed bit error .
• But, block and convolutional codes are used to
combat random independent errors.
• So,using them in a channel having memory
causes degradation in error handling
performance .
• Many coding techniques for channels with
memory are proposed but the greatest
problem with such coding is the difficulty in
obtaining time varying statistics of such
channel.
• The technique that requires only the
knowledge of duration or span of the channel
memory not it’s statistical characterization is
the “INTERLEAVING”.
 INTERLEAVING
• Interleaving the coded message before transmission and
deinterleaving after reception causes bursts of channel
errors to be spread out in time and thus to be handled by
the decoder as if they were random errors.
• The idea behind interleaving is to separate the codeword
symbols in time.
• The interleaving time are similarly filled by the symbols of
other codewords.
• Thus interleaving transforms a channel with a memory to a
memoryless one,hence making random-error-correcting
codes to be useful in a burst-noise channel.
• The interleaver actually shuffles the symbols in a
pattern.
• This redistribution must be known to the
receiver in order for the symbol stream to be
deinterleaved before being decoded .
• Example.
In the figure we see seven uninterleaved
codewords (A to G) & each codeword comprises
of seven symbols .
Let’s assume that the code has single error
correcting capability within each seven symbol
sequence .
A seven symbol-time noise burst could destroy the information
contained in one or two codewords. However suppose that,
after having encoded the data, the code symbols were then
interleaved or shuffled, as shown if fig(b).That is each code
symbol of each codeword is separated from its preinterleaved
neighbor by a span of seven symbols times.
The interleaved stream is then used to modulate a waveform
that is transmitted over the channel. Upon reception, the
stream is first deinterleaved, so that it resembles the original
coded sequence in fig(a).Then the stream is decoded,Since each
codeword has a single-error-correcting capability, the burst
noise has no degrading effect on the final sequence
(a)original uninterleaved codewords
(b)Interleaved codewords
The memory span of the channel is one codeword in duration .
• Two types of interleavers are generally used
1.Block interleaver
2.Convolutional interleaver
 Block Interleaver
• A block interleaver accepts the coded symbols in blocks from the encoder,
permutes the symbols and then feeds the rearranged symbols to the
modulator.
• The usual permutation of block is accomplished by filling the columns of a
M×N matrix with the encoded sequence.
• The symbols are then fed to the modulator one row at a time and
transmitted over the channel.
• At the receiver the deinterleaver performs the inverse operation i.e. the
symbols entered in rows and removed by columns.
• Fig shows an interleaver with M=4 rows and N=6 columns.
• The array illustrates the order in which the 24 symbols are
placed into the interleaver.
4×6 block interleaver
The most important characteristics of a block interleaver are as follows

5.The memory requirement is MN symbols for each

location(i.e interleaver and deinterleaver).
• Verification of characteristics using an example
1.Let there be a noise burst of a five symbol time.such that
the symbols shown encircled in fig (b) experience errors in
transmission.after deinterleaving at the receiver the
sequnence is

2.Let b=1.5 so that bN =9 fig(c) illustrates the 9 symbol error

burst .After deinterleaving the at the receiver the
sequence is
3.Fig (d) illustrates a sequence of single errors spaced
by N=6 symbols apart .After deinterleaving at the
receiver the sequence is
(b)Five symbols erroe burst
(c)Nine symbols erroe burst
(d)Periodic single error spaced by N=6
4.End to end delay is : (2MN-2M+2)=42 symbol
times.
5.Memory requirement = MN =24 symbols is
required at each end of the channel.
 CONVOLUTIONAL INTERLEAVER
• The structure provided by FORNEY is given in fig.
• The code symbols are sequentially shifted into the
bank of N registers;each successive register provides
J symbols more storage than the precceding one .
– The zeroth register provides no storage i.e. the symbol is
transmitted immediately.
– With each new code symbol the commutator switches to
a new resistor and the new code is shifted in while the
oldest code symbol in that register is shifted out.
Fig. shift register implementation of a convolutional interleaver/
deinterleaver
• In the example fig.a simple convolutional four –
register (j=1)interleaver being loaded by a sequence
of code symbols.the synchronized deinterleaver is
shown simulteniously feeding the deinterleaved
symbols to the decoder.
• The performance of a convolutional interleaver is
very similar to that of a block interleaver.
• The important advantage of convolutional over
block interleaver is that with a convolutional
interleaving the end to end delay is M(N-1)
symbols,where M=NJ and the memory required is
M(N-1)/2 at both ends of the channel i.e there is a
reduction of one-half in delay and memory over the
block interleaving requirements.
 CONCATENATED CODES
• A concatenated code is one that uses two levels of coding an inner
code and an outer code, to achive the desired error performance.
• Fig. shows the order of encoding and decoding.
• The outer code, usually used to reduce the probability of error to the
specific level.
• The inner code ,the one that interfaces with the
modulator/demodulator and channel is usually configured most of the
channel errors.
• An interleaver is used between the two coding steps to spread any
error bursts .
Fig .block diagram of a concatenated codes
• The primary reasons for using a concatenated code is
to achive a low error rate with an overall
implemantation complexity which is less than that
which would be required by a single coding operation.
• One of the most popular concatenated coding system
used a Viterbi-decoded convolutional inner code and
Reed-Solomon (R-S) outer code with interleaving
between two coding steps.
• The most popular use of concatenated code is in CD or
compact disc digital audio system.