  In this paper, we consider orthogonal multiple access coding schemes, where
correlated sources are encoded in a distributed fashion and transmitted,
through additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, to an access point (AP).
At the AP, component decoders, associated with the source encoders, iteratively
exchange soft information by taking into account the source correlation. The
first goal of this paper is to investigate the ultimate achievable performance
limits in terms of a multi-dimensional feasible region in the space of channel
parameters, deriving insights on the impact of the number of sources. The
second goal is the design of pragmatic schemes, where the sources use
"off-the-shelf" channel codes. In order to analyze the performance of given
coding schemes, we propose an extrinsic information transfer (EXIT)-based
approach, which allows to determine the corresponding multi-dimensional
feasible regions. On the basis of the proposed analytical framework, the
performance of pragmatic coded schemes, based on serially concatenated
convolutional codes (SCCCs), is discussed.
