EXIT-Chart-Aided Near-Capacity Quantum Turbo Code Design

High detection complexity is the main impediment in future gigabit-wireless systems. However, a quantum-based detector is capable of simultaneously detecting hundreds of user signals by virtue of its inherent parallel nature. This, in turn, requires near-capacity quantum error correction codes for protecting the constituent qubits of the quantum detector against undesirable environmental decoherence. In this quest, we appropriately adapt the conventional nonbinary EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) charts for quantum turbo codes (QTCs) by exploiting the intrinsic quantum-to-classical isomorphism. The EXIT chart analysis not only allows us to dispense with the time-consuming Monte Carlo simulations but facilitates the design of near-capacity codes without resorting to the analysis of their distance spectra as well. We have demonstrated that our EXIT chart predictions are in line with the Monte Carlo simulation results. We have also optimized the entanglement-assisted QTC using EXIT charts, which outperforms the existing distance-spectra-based QTCs. More explicitly, the performance of our optimized QTC is as close as 0.3 dB to the corresponding hashing bound.