Rapid advances in electronic and optical devices and systems have enabled the implementation of very powerful codes with close to optimum error-control performance. In addition, new types of code and decoding methods have recently been developed and are beginning to be applied. However, error-control coding is complex, novel and unfamiliar, and not yet widely understood and appreciated.
This text provides a clear description of the essentials of the topic, with comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of the most useful codes and their decoding algorithms. Block, Cyclic, BCH, Reed-Solomon, Convolutional, Turbo, and Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes are all described in-depth. The book has a practical engineering and information technology emphasis, and includes relevant background material and fundamental theoretical aspects. Several system applications of error-control codes are described, and the text is heavily illustrated with figures, worked examples and exercises.

About the Author

Jorge Castiñera Moreira is Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Communication Systems in the Electronics Department, School of Engineering, Mar del Plata University, Argentina. He is Director of the Communications Laboratory, Director of the research project "Open Source software applications for wireless networks" and co-director of the research project "Information Theory. Data Networks. Chaos and Communications". Jorge is also responsible for the teaching area "Communications". Patrick G. Farrell is Visiting Professor in the Department of Communication Systems at Lancaster University, UK, where he supervises 7 research assistants, 50 PhD and 35 MSc students. His research interests include error-control coding, coded modulation, digital communications, multi-user communications and information theory and source coding. Patrick has over 350 publications, reports and presentations, and is Editor of two book series (Academic Press and Research Studies Press).