Staircase codes, a new class of forward-error-correction (FEC) codes suitable for high-speed optical communications, are introduced. An ITU-T G.709-compatible staircase code with rate R=239/255 is proposed, and FPGA-based simulation results are presented, exhibiting a net coding gain (NCG) of 9.41 dB at an output error rate of 1E-15, an improvement of 0.42 dB relative to the best code from the ITU-T G.975.1 recommendation. An error floor analysis technique is presented, and the proposed code is shown to have an error floor at 4.0E-21.Comment: To appear in IEEE/OSA J. of Lightwave Technolog

joined the University of Kiel, Germany, where he is currently a Professor in Electrical Engineering. His research interests are in the general area of communications theory, including digital modulation techniques, soft-output decoding, equalization and channel estimation, with applications in mobile radio. Dr. Hoeher received the Hugo-Denkmeier-Award '90. John Lodge (S'80-M'81-SM'90) received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Queen'

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Demodulation using the symbol-by-symbol maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) algorithm is presented. The algorithm is derived for the case of continuous phase modulation (CPM) signals transmitted over Rayleigh flat-fading channels, and a corresponding receiver structure is specified. It is shown that the MAP algorithm requires computing, for each trellis branch, the sum of the products of the weights of all paths through the trellis which pass through that branch, and that this generic computational problem can be solved efficiently by an approach that uses a forward and backward recursion through the trellis. Simulation results are presented which show both the hard and soft decision performance of the MAP receiver to be robust, even in the presence of fade rates of up to 30% of the symbol rate. The application of the receiver concept to phaseshift keying (PSK) signals is also discussed, and then evaluated via simulation. The concept of joint demodulation and decoding using iterative processing techniques is introduced. It is shown that the MAP receiver is well suited for iterative processing applications due to its use of a priori symbol probabilities and its production of optimal soft decisions. Simulation results for the reception of quaternary PSK (QPSK) show that the bit error rate (BER) performance of the iterative MAP receiver can approach that of a receiver operating with perfect knowledge of the fading process.

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