1.

Introduction
The modern communication system cannot be imagined without wireless
communication system. As days are passing by wireless communication system is
developing to be more sophisticated. Wireless communications can vary from the
IEEE802.11 based computer connection to a router to deep-space data transmission
through uplink and downlink from between Earth stations and space shuttle exploring
the space. Noise and error are from the common features of all wireless transmission.
That is why Fault tolerance is very significant for all of these wireless communication
systems. Though Error detection suffices for transmission between short distances, but
for transmissions between long distances, both of the error detection and correction are
indispensable.

Mobile broadband connections have become a very popular communication system in

the field of telecommunication system. WiMax is such a contemporary mobile
broadband system which has been standardized based on IEEE 802.16. IEEE 802.16 is a
family of standards for Wireless MAN's. The full form of the acronym WiMAX is Worldwide
Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax). It is a connection-oriented wide area
network. WiMax and wi-fi have similar standard but compared to wi-fi, WiMAX
functions on a broader scale. WiMAX aggregates the features of Wi-Fi with the mobility
of cellular phone which enables one to have access to personal mobile broadband while
moving.

Error-correcting codes are the tools which are used to redress the degradation of signals
that happens in communication over channels which have more or less imperfections. In
the digital system, the message which is intended to transmit over a channel is passed
through an Encoder just before letting it through the channel to make the message
signal more robust against corruption of the channel. This encoded message is called a
codeword. The system then transmits the codeword. The received codeword at the
receiver end is likely to vary from the sent codeword due to the phenomenon of Noise.
Then the received word is passed through a decoder. The decoder uses error-correcting
codes to extract the correct original message as per best it can. The interesting thing is
that, the error correcting code is not a part of original message. But it helps in extracting
the original message. Here is the significance of Error Correcting Codes.

Four channel coding techniques have been specified for IEEE 802.16e which includes
WiMAX. They are: Convolutional code, Block turbo code (BTC), Convolutional turbo code
(CTC), Low-density Parity-check (LDPC) code.

The convolutional coding technique is one of the Forward Error Correcting Code. In the
convolutional coding technique, a continuous stream of bits is encoded and decoded. To
understand convolutional coding, it is necessary to understand the idea of convolution.
Convolution is getting a new signal by making two signals overlap each other. In the
same way, in convolutional coding, a stream of binary bits is convolved by using some
binary operations on the stream. Unlike the block coding, Convolutional coding
technique depends on past memory which means the output bit not only depends on
the current bit which is being encoded but also on the previous bit stream memory of
which is still stored in the shift register.

Instead of dealing with all four channel coding techniques used for WiMAX and its other
co-group members of wireless communication, this project concentrates on
Convolutional Coding only.

2. Problem Statement
WIMAX like any other wireless communication system suffers from noise and hence
error as it transmits data through the imperfect wireless channel. The role of encoding
before transmission and decoding after receiving the data is therefore profound as they
contribute in minimizing the noise and error during transmission and in recovering the
original data. There are four channel coding techniques assigned to IEEE 802.16e which
is used as standard for WiMAX which are: Convolutional code, Block turbo code (BTC),
Convolutional turbo code (CTC), Low-density Parity-check (LDPC) code.

This project intends to review performance of convolutional channel coding and its two
different version of decoding i.e. Decoding by Hard Decision and Decoding by Soft
decision.

3. Objectives:

i) To be familiar with one of the channel coding techniques which is used for WiMAX i.e.
convolutional channel coding by going through literatures on this field.

ii) To Implement an convolutional encoder using a simulation software.

iii) To observe the error performance of two different convolutional decoding

techniques namely, decoding by hard decision and decoding by soft decision.

4. Methodology:

i) Studying about the literatures on WiMAX channel encoding system specially, about
the Convolutional Coding technique.

ii) Implement the Convolutional Coding in MATLAB.

iii) Analyzing the error performance of two different decoding techniques in

Convolutional Channel Coding.
5. Literature Review

5.1. WiMAX

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a connection-oriented

wide area network. It enables high bandwidth access and allows hundreds of users per
channel at speeds which are found in DSL, Cable or a T1 connection. WiMAX is being
considered an alternative to wired broadband like cable and DSL by committing to
render a range of 30 miles. It has the potential to enable broadband access to remote
places by using point-to-multipoint (P2MP) architecture. It is designed for delivering
broadband seamless quality multimedia services to the end users. WiMAX aggregates
the features of Wi-Fi with the mobility of cellular phone which enables one to have
access to personal mobile broadband while moving. . A WiMAX base-station is almost
same like a cellular tower, except that it can cover of almost of 3,000 square miles
(8,000 square km almost). A WiMAX receiver can take shape of a standalone tower or a
PCMCIA card inserted into ones laptop. By having such large coverage areas, WiMAX
has the potential to resolve the problems of handoffs associated with 802.11 because it
has the capability to cover huge area.
IEEE802.16 standard is used for WiMAX with the features:
Uses wireless link with microwave or millimeter waves.
Uses licensed spectrum
Provides public network service to fee-paying customers
Uses point-to-multipoint (P2MP) architecture
Simple stationary rooftop or tower-mounted antennas
Provide broadband and QoS guarantee data transmissions. [Mojtaba Seyedzadegan
and Mohamed Othman 2013]
The first version of the IEEE 802.16 standard used 1066GHz frequency band to operate
and also indispensable to it was line of sight (LOS) towers. Later when the standard was
expanded, its operation capability increased to 211 GHz frequency band by introducing
different physical laer specification which also enabled non line of sight (NLOS)
connections and which had to employ techniques as necessity that efficiently mitigate
the impairment adding and multi-path. Taking the advantage of OFDM technique the
Physical layer is able to provide strong broadband service in hostile wireless channel
because of being based on OFDM which have some of the advantages. Physical layer of
the IEEE 802.16 standard has been standardized in close cooperation with the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) High Performance Metropolitan Area
Network (HIPERMAN). Thus, the HIPERMAN Standard and the OFDM based physical
layer of IEEE 802.16 are nearly identical. Both OFDM based physical layers shall comply
with each other and a global OFDM system should emerge. The WIMAX forum certified
products for BWA comply with the both standards [Telagarapu, Biswal and Suman,
2011]. Only fixed and Nomadic services were provided with by the original WiMAX
standard. Then the revision of previous standard came as IEEE 802.16e specification
which enabled full mobility application. Mobile WiMAX now has become a fast growing
new technology for getting the facility of full mobility wireless access. WiMAX now
supports nomadic and fixed access as well as both the point-to-point and point-to-
multipoint connections.

The performance of WiMAX physical layer is commonly determined by BER. Noise in

transmission medium disturbs the information signal and causes data corruptions. In
general, SNR is inversely proportional with BER which means the quality of a
communication system becomes better at lower BER and at higher SNR values. In order
to improve the BER performance of a wireless communication system it is necessary to
reduce burst error as much as possible. Forward error correction techniques use error-
correcting codes such as RS, CC, and CRC and so on for dealing with burst error. By
concatenating two different codes the effect of improving the total BER of WiMAX
system can be realized.