Joint Recognition of Error Correcting Codes and Interleaver Parameters in a Robust Environment

To improve the error performance of digital storage and communication systems, forward error correcting (FEC) codes and interleaver play a significant role by counteracting random and burst errors, respectively. In most of the applications, accurate information about the type of FEC codes, coding and interleaving parameters are known at the receiver in order to successfully decode and de-interleave the message bits, respectively. However, in certain applications such as spectrum surveillance, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC)-based communication systems, cognitive radio, etc., all the coding and interleaving parameters need not be known at the receiver and blind/semi-blind recognition of the same is mandatory. Therefore, in this paper, innovative algorithms for automatic recognition of type of FEC codes along with the parameter estimation of helical scan interleaver are proposed considering both erroneous and non-erroneous scenarios without any prior knowledge about the encoding scheme used in the transmitter. Note that the proposed algorithms will classify among block coded, convolutional coded, and uncoded data streams.