Unequal Error Protection Punctured Convolutional Codes

In this paper, we take the total number of edge symbols per information bit in the minimal trellis module representing a convolutional code as the measure of complexity to get it decoded by the Viterbi algorithm. We conduct a code search restricted to the recently introduced class of generalized punctured convolutional codes (GPCC) to find good unequal error protection (UEP) convolutional codes for a prescribed trellis complexity. New good UEP convolutional codes and their respective effective free distances are tabulated for a variety of code rates and “minimal” trellis complexities. The low decoding complexity, resulting from the adoption of the “minimal” trellis for the code, makes these codes attractive for practical applications.