Turbo codes

In information theory, turbo codes (originally in French Turbocodes) are a class of high-performance forward error correction (FEC) codes developed around 1990–91 (but first published in 1993), which were the first practical codes to closely approach the channel capacity, a theoretical maximum for the code rate at which reliable communication is still possible given a specific noise level. Turbo codes are used in 3G/4G mobile communications (e.g., in UMTS and LTE) and in (deep space) satellite communications as well as other applications where designers seek to achieve reliable information transfer over bandwidth- or latency-constrained communication links in the presence of data-corrupting noise. Turbo codes are nowadays competing with LDPC codes, which provide similar performance.

The name "turbo code" arose from the feedback loop used during normal turbo code decoding, which was analogized to the exhaust feedback used for engine turbocharging. Hagenauer has argued the term turbo code is a misnomer since there is no feedback involved in the encoding process.

The fundamental patent application for turbo codes was filed on April 23, 1991. The patent application lists Claude Berrou as the sole inventor of turbo codes. The patent filing resulted in several patents including US Patent 5,446,747, which expired August 29, 2013.

The first public paper on turbo codes was "Near Shannon Limit Error-correcting Coding and Decoding: Turbo-codes". This paper was published 1993 in the Proceedings of IEEE International Communications Conference. The 1993 paper was formed from three separate submissions that were combined due to space constraints. The merger caused the paper to list three authors: Berrou, Glavieux, and Thitimajshima (from Télécom Bretagne, former ENST Bretagne, France). However, it is clear from the original patent filing that Claude Berrou is the sole inventor of turbo codes and that the other authors of the paper contributed material other than the core concepts of turbo codes.

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