Optimal coding rate of punctured convolutional codes in multiservice wireless cellular systems

The microcellular link performance of future multimedia wireless systems co uld be improved by using error-correcting punctured convolutional codes in conjunction with slow-frequency hopping. However, the bandwidth expansion d ue to coding leads to a decrease in the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of a frequency-division time-division multiple-access (FD-TDMA) cellular ra dio link if system capacity is to be maintained for a given bandwidth alloc ation. This work determines the best compromise between the power of error correction due to coding and the strength of the self-induced system interf erence in terms of numerous criteria for speech and data transmission. The aforementioned tradeoff is evaluated in terms of the average bit error rate (BER), the frame error rate, and the burst error distribution for voice tr ansmission. For data transmission with a type 1 hybrid selective-repeat aut omatic repeat-request (ARQ) protocol, the criteria are average throughput a nd throughput distribution, the round-trip acknowledgment transmission dela y distribution, and the buffering requirements at the transmitter and recei ver. The study highlights that punctured codes can significantly improve pe rformance for wireless data links in comparison with the rate 1/2 convoluti onal coding case or the no-coding case.