On Progressive Edge-Growth Interleavers for Turbo Codes

In this letter, we show that the family of progressive edge growth interleavers ensures optimal growth of the minimum distance of turbo codes, which grows as log(N), where N is the interleaver size. This family of interleavers fits well the self-concatenated structure of turbo codes, hence it works with irregular turbo codes as well. We will start by introducing the self-concatenated structure of turbo codes. We then recall the progressive edge-growth interleaver construction, and we show that the minimum distance grows optimally with such interleavers. We end up by showing simulation comparisons with other families of interleavers.