Reliable communication over non-binary insertion/deletion channels

Abstract: We consider the problem of reliable communication over non-binary insertion/deletion channels where symbols are randomly deleted from or inserted in the transmitted sequence and all symbols are corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise. To this end, we utilize the inherent redundancy achievable in non-binary symbol sets by first expanding the symbol set and then allocating part of the bits associated with each symbol to watermark symbols. The watermark sequence, known at the receiver, is then used by a forward-backward algorithm to provide soft information for an outer code which decodes the transmitted sequence. Through numerical results and discussions, we evaluate the performance of the proposed solution and show that it leads to significant system ability to detect and correct insertions/deletions. We also provide estimates of the maximum achievable information rates of the system, compare them with the available bounds, and construct practical codes capable of approaching these limits.