Woven convolutional graph codes with large free distances

Constructions of woven graph codes based on constituent convolutional codes are studied, and examples of woven convolutional graph codes are presented. Existence of codes satisfying the Costello lower bound on the free distance within a random ensemble of woven graph codes based on $s$-partite, $s$-uniform hypergraphs is shown, where $s$ depends only on the code rate. Simulation results for Viterbi decoding of woven graph codes are presented and discussed.