Turbo Codes Promise Better Wireless Transmission

captain igor writes "IEEE is running a story about two French professors that have created a new class of encoding, called 'Turbo Codes,' that will allow engineers to pass almost twice as much data through a given communications channel, or equivalently, the same amount of data at half the power. The new codes allow the Shannon Limit (the theoretical maximum capacity of a channel) to be approached to, currently, within .5 dB. Scientists hope that this breakthrough will revolutionize wireless communications, especially with the coming reclamation of large swaths of the EM spectrum." As the article points out, such codes are in use now, but seem poised for much wider implementation.

Comments

Re:Lucky guys!

[AnonymousNoMore]

Oh Christ, mod parent as funny please!

Re:STOP USING THE WORD "TURBO"

[osjedi]

Ok, what you just described is not a turbo, it's what is know as Exhaust Gas Recirculation (or EGR for short). It's a technique used to reduce automotive emissions. Turbo sounds cooler, but it's still a lame perversion of the true meaning.

They should just call it multi-pass decoding or something logical like that IMHO. My shop air-compressor has an intake, a compressor, and an exhaust, but I don't call it a jet engine.