Effects of code rate and constraint length on performance of convolutional code

Error detection and correction have a great practical importance in digital communication when channel is noisy. Convolutional encoding is one of the forward error correction (FEC) schemes which can correct both random and burst errors. The low code rate increases the error correction capability but also increases overhead. This paper focuses on the performance study of convolutional code by varying parameters like code rate, generating polynomials and constraint length. A Viterbi decoder is used for decoding a bit stream that has been encoded by convolutional encoder. The code rate 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 are considered for constraint length 3 and 4.