High-rate convolutional code construction with the minimum required SNR criterion

New short constraint length, high-rate convolutional codes which minimize the required signal to noise ratios (SNR) are found and tabulated for rates 2/3, 3/4, and 4/5, and for constraint length K up to 10. When compared with previously reported codes, most of the new codes reduce the required SNR only slightly. However, there are some pairs of K and code rate for which the new codes require considerably less SNR. The most significant one is the new K = 8, ate 4/5 code which requires 1.2 dB less SNR than the known code with the same parameters, for a desired bit error rate of 0.000001.