Iterative decoding of product block codes based on the genetic algorithms

Abstract:
In this paper, a new iterative decoding algorithm of product block codes (PBC) based on the genetic algorithms is presented. We applied this algorithm over AWGN channel to symmetric and asymmetric PBC constructed from BCH and Quadratic Residue (QR) codes. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the Chase-Pyndiah one and is only 1.6dB away from the Shannon capacity limit at BER of 10-5 for BCH (63, 51, 5)2 PBC. Furthermore, this algorithm can be applied to any arbitrary binary product block codes, without the need of a hard-in hard-out decoder, and is less complex than the Chase-Pyndiah algorithm for codes with large correction capacity.Those features make the decoders based on genetic algorithms efficient and attractive.