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Creation, Validation, and Testing of User Defined Trellis Structure

Create User Defined Trellis Structure

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This example demonstrates creation of a nonstandard trellis structure for a convolutional encoder with uncoded bits and feedback. The encoder cannot be created using poly2trellis because the peculiar specifications for the encoder do not match the input requirements of poly2trellis.

You can manually create the trellis structure, and then use it as the input trellis structure for an encoder and decoder. The Convolutional Encoder and Viterbi Decoder blocks used in the Convolutional Encoder with Uncoded Bits and Feedback model load the trellis structure created here using a PreLoadFcn callback.

Convolutional Encoder

Create a rate 3/4 convolutional encoder with feedback connection whose MSB bit remains uncoded.

Declare variables according to the specifications.

K = 3;
N = 4;
constraintLength = 4;

Create trellis structure

A trellis structure has the following fields:

  • numInputSymbols – Number of input symbols

  • numOutputSymbols – Number of output symbols

  • numStates – Number of states

  • nextStates – Next state matrix

  • outputs – Output matrix

For more information about these structure fields, see istrellis.

Reset any previous occurrence of myTrellis structure.

clear myTrellis;

Define the trellis structure fields.

myTrellis.numInputSymbols = 2^K;
myTrellis.numOutputSymbols = 2^N;
myTrellis.numStates  = 2^(constraintLength-1);

Create nextStates Matrix

The nextStates matrix is a [numStates x numInputSymbols] matrix. The (i,j) element of the next state matrix is the resulting final state index that corresponds to a transition from the initial state i for an input equal to j.

myTrellis.nextStates = [0  1  2  3  0  1  2  3; ...
                        6  7  4  5  6  7  4  5; ...
                        1  0  3  2  1  0  3  2; ...
                        7  6  5  4  7  6  5  4; ...
                        2  3  0  1  2  3  0  1; ...
                        4  5  6  7  4  5  6  7; ...
                        3  2  1  0  3  2  1  0; ...
                        5  4  7  6  5  4  7  6]    
myTrellis = struct with fields:
     numInputSymbols: 8
    numOutputSymbols: 16
           numStates: 8
          nextStates: [8x8 double]

Plot nextStates Matrix

Use the commcnv_plotnextstates helper function to plot the nextStates matrix to illustrate the branch transitions between different states for a given input.

commcnv_plotnextstates(myTrellis.nextStates);

MATLAB figure

Create outputs Matrix

The outputs matrix is a [numStates x numInputSymbols] matrix. The (i,j) element of the output matrix is the output symbol in octal format given a current state i for an input equal to j.

outputs =  [0  2  4  6  10  12  14  16; ...
            1  3  5  7  11  13  15  17; ...
            0  2  4  6  10  12  14  16; ...
            1  3  5  7  11  13  15  17; ...
            0  2  4  6  10  12  14  16; ...
            1  3  5  7  11  13  15  17; ...
            0  2  4  6  10  12  14  16; ...
            1  3  5  7  11  13  15  17]
outputs = 8×8

     0     2     4     6    10    12    14    16
     1     3     5     7    11    13    15    17
     0     2     4     6    10    12    14    16
     1     3     5     7    11    13    15    17
     0     2     4     6    10    12    14    16
     1     3     5     7    11    13    15    17
     0     2     4     6    10    12    14    16
     1     3     5     7    11    13    15    17

Use oct2dec to display these values in decimal format.

outputs_dec = oct2dec(outputs)
outputs_dec = 8×8

     0     2     4     6     8    10    12    14
     1     3     5     7     9    11    13    15
     0     2     4     6     8    10    12    14
     1     3     5     7     9    11    13    15
     0     2     4     6     8    10    12    14
     1     3     5     7     9    11    13    15
     0     2     4     6     8    10    12    14
     1     3     5     7     9    11    13    15

Copy outputs matrix into the myTrellis structure.

myTrellis.outputs = outputs
myTrellis = struct with fields:
     numInputSymbols: 8
    numOutputSymbols: 16
           numStates: 8
          nextStates: [8x8 double]
             outputs: [8x8 double]

Plot outputs Matrix

Use the commcnv_plotoutputs helper function to plot the outputs matrix to illustrate the possible output symbols for a given state depending on the input symbol.

commcnv_plotoutputs(myTrellis.outputs, myTrellis.numOutputSymbols);

MATLAB figure

Check Resulting Trellis Structure

istrellis(myTrellis)
ans = logical
   1

A return value of 1 confirms the trellis structure is valid.

Convolutional Encoder with Uncoded Bits and Feedback

This example uses:

Open Model

The model serves as a unit test bench for the convolutional code implemented. The model shows how to define and use a trellis that describes a convolutional code. The particular code in this example cannot be described by a set of generator and feedback connection polynomials. The code's trellis cannot be created by the poly2trellis because that function expects generator and feedback connection polynomials as input arguments.

Structure of the Convolutional Code

This figure shows the convolutional code.

Explore Model

The major components of the slex_commcnvencoder model include:

  • A transmit path that builds a representation of the convolutional encoder using discrete low-level delay and sum (XOR) blocks. This representation looks very similar to the figure showing the structure of the convolutional code.

  • A transmit-receive path that builds a representation of the same convolutional encoder using the Convolutional Encoder block with the encoder described within the Trellis structure parameter. This portion of the model also includes the Viterbi Decoder block, which decodes the convolutional code.

  • Both paths compute the number of bit errors.

Results and Displays

When you run the simulation, the block labeled Compare Encoder checks that the two representations of the encoder yield the same result. The block labeled Compare Encoder - Decoder checks that the encoder and decoder work properly as a pair. Each Display block in the model shows an error rate of zero, as expected.

Error rate for Compare Encoder signal: 0.000
Error rate for Compare Encoder-Decoder signal: 0.000