Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics Vol. 12, No. 5, October 2023, pp. 2903~2912 ISSN: 2302-9285, DOI: 10.11591/eei.v12i5.4771  2903 Journal homepage: http://beei.org Error performance analysis of forward error correction using convolutional encoding in the presence of (1/f) noise Yasin Yousif Al-Aboosi, Ammar Ali Sahrab, Amal Ibrahim Nasser, Hussein A. Abdulnabi Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Mustansiryah University, Baghdad, Iraq Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Dec 15, 2022 Revised Jan 20, 2023 Accepted Feb 14, 2023 Any communication scheme's principal goal is providing error-free data transmission. By increasing the rate at which data could be transmitted through a channel and maintaining a given error rate, this coding is advantageous. The message bits to be transmitted will gradually receive more bits thanks to the convolution (channel) encoder. At the receiver end of the channel, a Viterbi decoder is utilized in order to extract original message sequence from the received data. Widely utilized error correction approaches in communication systems for the enhancement of bit error rate (BER) performance are Viterbi decoding and convolutional encoding. The Viterbi decoder and convolution encoder rate for constraints with lengths of 2 and 6 and bit rates of 1⁄2 and 1⁄3 are shown in this study in the presence of (1/f) noise. The performance regarding the convolutional encoding/hard decision Viterbi decoding forward error correction (FEC) method affects the simulation outcomes. The findings demonstrate that the BER as function of signal to noise ratio (SNR) acquired for uncoded binary phase shift keying (BPSK) with the existence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is inferior to that acquired with the use of a hard decision Viterbi decoder. Keywords: Bit error rate Colored noise Convolution code Forward error correction Viterbi decoder This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Yasin Yousif Al-Aboosi Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Al-Mustansiryah University Baghdad, Iraq Email: alaboosiyasin@gmail.com 1. INTRODUCTION Data transmission through noisy channels is addressed by coding theory, which employs a variety of source and channel coding/decoding algorithms. Forward error correction (FEC) schemes frequently employ convolutional coding. The widely utilized Viterbi algorithm serves as the foundation for the primary decoding method for convolution codes. Convolutional encoding with the Viterbi decoding represents potent FEC approach which is especially well-suited to a channel where transmitted signal is mostly contaminated by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) in conventional systems [1]. However, in fact, colored noise is present [2]. Through carefully designing redundant information to be added to data that is being transmitted via the channel, FEC aims to increase the channel's capacity [3]. For the most part, Viterbi algorithm conducts maximal likelihood decoding to fix errors in received data that is brought on by channel noise. Therefore, reduce bit error rate (BER) to enhance performance. Because Viterbi decoding has set decoding time, it’s advantageous for the implementation of hardware decoder. The specifications for Viterbi decoder, a processor that executes the Viterbi algorithm, vary depending on the application. Viterbi algorithm uses the greatest resources and is the most effective [4]–[6]. In Figure 1, a general block architecture regarding a digital communication system with the use of convolution encoder and Viterbi decoder has been shown in the presence of colored noise.