Self-Synchronizing Binary Telemetry Codes

Citation

Stiffler, Jack Justin (1962) Self-Synchronizing Binary Telemetry Codes. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/G956-8Z21. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:12092009-113403691

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed significant advances in the techniques for communication, with high reliability, over noisy channels and, in particular, in the methods of encoding for these channels. However, for many of these encodings, including the so-called block codes, efficient reception demands that the receiver know the instant in time that one block of data ends and the succeeding block begins. This synchronization problem, as applied to an important class of block codes, which are optimum or nearly optimum over the continuous white Gaussian channel, is the central topic treated in this thesis. Two synchronization methods are presented, and upper bounds on the time necessary for their operation are determined. The first involves almost no additional encoding or decoding equipment, but is dependent upon the randomness of the received message. The second technique, while necessitating more complex decoding apparatus, is, in general, considerably more rapid than the first and is, moreover, independent of the statistical properties of the data. Neither method decreases the information capacity of the channel. The performance of both these techniques in conjunction with the binary symmetric channel is also investigated.

Thesis Files