Soft iterative decoding algorithms for rateless codes in satellite systems

The satellite system is one of the most efficient means for broadcasting due to its wide service coverage as well as the fact that it can provide high data rate services by using high frequency bands. However, there are a number of problems in the satellite system, such as a long round trip delay (RTD) and heterogeneity of the channel conditions of the earth stations. Even though utilizing adaptive coding and modulation (ACM) is almost mandatory for the satellite systems using high frequency bands due to the serious rain fading, the long RTD makes it difficult to quickly respond to channel quality information, resulting in a decrease in the efficiency of ACM. A high heterogeneity of earth stations caused by a wide service coverage also makes it difficult to apply a uniform transmission mode, and thus satellite systems require receiver-dependent transmission modes. A rateless code can be an effective means to compensate for these disadvantages of satellite systems compared to terrestrial wireless systems. This paper presents soft iterative decoding algorithms for efficient application of rateless codes in satellite systems and demonstrates that rateless codes can be effectively used for hybrid automatic repeat request schemes.