Joint Source-Channel-Fountain Coding for Asynchronous Broadcast

A novel concept of joint source-fountain coding for asynchronous wireless broadcast is presented. The traditional field of joint source-channel coding aims in both lossless data compression as well as reliable data delivery. Besides, fountain coding allows reliable broadcast without the need of feedback, and furthermore, asynchronous data access, i.e., each receiver is able to decide when it wants to subscribe to the ongoing broadcast session. Our approach combines these traditional distinct subjects. We introduce an appropriate system model and present a realization for a joint source-fountain code by applying the capacity approaching, parallel concatenated turbocodes. Simulation results are provided, showing that our joint approach outperforms a separated scheme composed of source coding and subsequent fountain coding.