What is channel coding in GSM?

Answer 1

The GSM Channel CodingChannel coding introduces redundancy into the data flow in order to allow the detection or even the correction of bit errors introduced during the transmission.

The speech coding algorithm produces a speech block of 260 bits every 20 ms (i.e. bit rate 13 kbit/s). In the decoder, these speech blocks are decoded and converted to 13 bit uniformly coded speech samples. The 260 bits of the speech block are classified into two groups. The 78 Class II bits are considered of less importance and are unprotected. The 182 Class I bits are split into 50 Class Ia bits and 132 Class Ib bits.

Class Ia bits are first protected by 3 parity bits for error detection. Class Ib bits are then added together with 4 tail bits before applying the convolutional code with rate and constraint length K=5. The resulting 378 bits are then added to the 78 unprotected Class II bits resulting in a complete coded speech frame of 456 bits.