Iterative signal processing applied to communications is a relatively new methodology. While long known in applied linear algebra as a computationally efficient tool to solve systems of linear equations, its acceptance in communications signal processing was primarily ushered in by the meteoric success of turbo coding and its accompanying iterative decoding algorithm.

This special issue explores the foundations of iterative processing, its numerical advantages, and its emerging role in signal processing. The discovery of the turbo decoding algorithm has given rise to a flood of iterative signal processing approaches, primarily to error control coding, multiple access communications, multiple interference channels, and to the demodulation of signals from multiple-input multiple-output systems. A state-of-the-art snapshot of these topics forms the motivation of this special issue. The proposed format includes four major topical areas, with papers solicited in the following areas:

• Iterative Matrix Solution Methods and Applications. Papers in this category will explore the history and state of the art of iterative matrix solution techniques and their computational complexities, including applications to modern information and signal processing.
• Iterative Decoding Algorithms Applied to Error Control Coding. Papers on this topic will target tutorial explanations of iterative decoding algorithms, whose prototypes were developed by C. Berrou in 1993 and R. Gallager in 1963. The papers will focus on the dynamic system aspects of the iterative decoders, their convergence behavior, and analysis methods such as variance transfer, EXIT charts, and density evolution methods.
• Joint Demodulation & Decoding on High-Dimensional Channels. These papers will focus on the application of iterative signal processing for the purpose of jointly demodulating and decoding signals from high-dimensional channels, such as joint CDMA access, multiple-antenna channels, and joint ISI equalization and decoding.
• Information Theoretical Results on Iterative Signal Processing. The papers solicited on this topic will target the state of the art of the theory on the performance and convergence behavior of iterative signal processing systems, such as results relating performance to channel capacity.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jece/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: