Simplified Successive-Cancellation List Decoding of

Polar Codes

Seyyed Ali Hashemi, Carlo Condo, Warren J. Gross

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

McGill University
Montréal, Québec, Canada

July 12, 2016

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 1 / 14
 Motivation

What is the problem?

5G requirements are stringent

Polar Codes are a good match
Successive-Cancellation List (SCL) Decoding
Very good error-correction performance but high complexity
Very slow: there are many redundant calculations

In this talk:
We show how to speed up SCL without losing
error-correction performance!
Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 2 / 14
 Background

Polar Codes

Can provably achieve channel capacity

Encoding is based on polarizing matrix G⊗n
Input bits are divided into Information bits and Frozen bits
Frozen bits help decoding

Decoding schemes:
List-SD
Successive-Cancellation (SC)

Speed
SC List (SCL) SC
Sphere Decoding (SD) SCL
List-SD
SD

Error-Correction Performance

E. Arıkan, ”Channel polarization: A method for constructing capacity achieving codes for symmetric binary input
memoryless channels,” IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 3051-3073, July 2009.
Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 3 / 14
 Background

Polar Codes

Can provably achieve channel capacity

Encoding is based on polarizing matrix G⊗n
Input bits are divided into Information bits and Frozen bits
Frozen bits help decoding

Decoding schemes: X
List-SD
Successive-Cancellation (SC)

Speed
SC List (SCL) SC
Sphere Decoding (SD) SCL
List-SD
SD

Error-Correction Performance

E. Arıkan, ”Channel polarization: A method for constructing capacity achieving codes for symmetric binary input
memoryless channels,” IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 3051-3073, July 2009.
Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 3 / 14
 Background

Encoding and SC Decoding

= 0sz}|{
sz}|{ = 1 zs }|
= 2{ z =3
s }| { s=3
x0 α
0 β
s=2 l βr
0 x1 α lα r
0 x2 s=1 β
u3 x3
s=0
0 x4
u5 x5
u6 x6
u7 x7

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 4 / 14
 Background

Encoding and SC Decoding

= 0sz}|{
sz}|{ = 1 zs }|
= 2{ z =3
s }| { s=3
x0 α
0 β
s=2 l βr
0 x1 α lα r
0 x2 s=1 β
u3 x3
s=0
0 x4
u5 x5
Exact formulation
u6 x6
1 + eαi +αi +2s−1
 
u7 x7 l
αi = ln
eαi + eαi +2s−1
αri =αi +2s−1 + (1 − 2βil )αi

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 4 / 14
 Background

Encoding and SC Decoding

= 0sz}|{
sz}|{ = 1 zs }|
= 2{ =3
s }| s=3
z {
x0 α
0 β
s=2 l βr
0 x1 α lα r
0 x2 s=1 β
u3 x3
s=0
0 x4
u5 x5
Exact formulation
u6 x6
1 + eαi +αi +2s−1
 
u7 x7
αli = ln
eαi + eαi +2s−1
αri =αi +2s−1 + (1 − 2βil )αi

Hardware-friendly formulation
αli = sgn(αi ) sgn(αi +2s−1 ) min(|αi |, |αi +2s−1 |)
αri =αi +2s−1 + (1 − 2βil )αi

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 4 / 14
 Background

SSC and Fast-SSC

SC

s=3

s=2

s=1

s=0

T = 14 time-steps

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 5 / 14
 Background

SSC and Fast-SSC

Simplified SC (SSC)

s=3

s=2

s=1
Rate-0 Rate-1
s=0

T = 10 time-steps

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 5 / 14
 Background

SSC and Fast-SSC

Fast-SSC

s=3

s=2
Rep SPC
s=1

s=0

T = 2 time-steps

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 5 / 14
 Background

SCL Decoding

For finite practical code-lengths, SCL estimates each information bit

as either 0 or 1
L codeword candidates survive to limit complexity
CRC-aided SCL can outperform LDPC codes
A path metric helps the selection of the surviving candidates

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 6 / 14
 Background

SCL Decoding

For finite practical code-lengths, SCL estimates each information bit

as either 0 or 1
L codeword candidates survive to limit complexity
CRC-aided SCL can outperform LDPC codes
A path metric helps the selection of the surviving candidates

Exact formulation i
X  
−(1−2ûjl )αjl
PMil = ln 1 + e
j=0

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 6 / 14
 Background

SCL Decoding

For finite practical code-lengths, SCL estimates each information bit

as either 0 or 1
L codeword candidates survive to limit complexity
CRC-aided SCL can outperform LDPC codes
A path metric helps the selection of the surviving candidates

Exact formulation i
X  
PMil = ln 1 + e−(1−2ûjl )αjl
j=0

Hardware-friendly formulation
(
PMi −1l +|αil |, if ûil 6= 21 (1 − sgn (αil )) ,
PMil =
PMi −1l , otherwise

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 6 / 14
 Proposed Algorithm

SCL Issues

SCL requires sorting the path metrics

Adds N more time-steps to the decoding process
SSC and Fast-SSC are equivalent to SC
They are guaranteed to preserve the error-correction performance

Simplified SCL:
Faster: simplified Rate-1, Rate-0 and Rep nodes
Guaranteed to preserve error-correction performance

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 7 / 14
 Proposed Algorithm

Simplified SCL

Theorem
The path metric for a Rate-1 node of length 2s can be calculated as
s −1
2X  
PM2s −1 = ln 1 + e−(1−2βi )αi ,
i =0
where αi and βi are relative to the top of the Rate-1 node tree.

Based on List-SD idea

[α0 , α1 , α2 , α3 ] ⇔ [β0 , β1 , β2 , β3 ]
s=2

s=1

s=0

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 8 / 14
 Proposed Algorithm

Simplified SCL

Proof.
Induction (ηi = 1 − 2βi )
For Rate-1 node with N = 2:
  α +α 
l 1+e 0 1


 α 0 = ln eα0 +eα1

 r
α0 = α1 + η0l α0
SC
η0l = η0 η1


 r

η0 = η1
 l l
  r r

PM1 = ln 1 + e−η0 α0 +ln 1 + e−η0 α0

Substituting for αl0 , αr0 , η0l and η0r :

PM1 = ln 1 + e−η0 α0 + ln 1 + e−η1 α1

The theorem holds for N = 2.

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 9 / 14
 Proposed Algorithm

Simplified SCL

Proof. Proof.
Induction (ηi = 1 − 2βi ) For Rate-1 node with N = 2s :
For Rate-1 node with N = 2:
  α +α  PM2s −1 = PMl2s−1 −1 + PMr2s−1 −1
l 1+e 0 1
α = ln s−1
= Σi2=0 −1 ln 1 + e−ηi αi


0


 eα0 +eα1

 r
α0 = α1 + η0l α0 + ln 1 + e−ηi +2s−1 αi +2s−1


SC
η0l = η0 η1
 s
= Σ2i =0



 r
 −1
ln 1 + e−ηi αi ,
η0 = η1
 l l
  r r
 The theorem holds for all N.
PM1 = ln 1 + e−η0 α0 +ln 1 + e−η0 α0
u0 β0 x0
l r l r
Substituting for α0 , α0 , η0 and η0 :
u1 β 1 x1
β



PM1 = ln 1 + e −η0 α0
+ ln 1 + e −η1 α1
u2 2 x2
u3 β3 x3
The theorem holds for N = 2.
Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 9 / 14
 Proposed Algorithm

Simplified SCL

Theorem
In the hardware-friendly formulation of SCL algorithm, the path metric for
a Rate-1 node of length 2s can be calculated as
2s −1
1X
PM2s −1 = sgn (αi ) αi − (1 − 2βi )αi ,
2
i =0
where αi and βi are relative to the top of the Rate-1 node tree.

Simplified Rate-1 node can be decoded in N time-steps

About a factor of 3 faster than conventional SCL

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 10 / 14
 Proposed Algorithm

Simplified SCL

Theorem
The path metric for a Rate-0 node of length 2s can be calculated as
s −1
2X
ln 1 + e−αi ,


PM2s −1 =
i =0
where αi is the LLR value at the top of the Rate-0 node tree.

[α0 , α1 , α2 , α3 ] ⇔ [0, 0, 0, 0]
s=2

s=1

s=0
Simplified Rate-0 nodes can be decoded in at most log2 N time-steps
The time complexity is reduced from O(N) to O(log2 N)

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 11 / 14
 Proposed Algorithm

Simplified SCL
Theorem
The path metric for a Rep node of length 2s can be calculated as
s −1
2X  
PM2s −1 = ln 1 + e−(1−2β2s −1 )αi ,
i =0
where αi is relative to the top of the Rep node tree and β2s −1 is relative to
the information bit in the Rep node tree.

[α0 , α1 , α2 , α3 ] ⇔ [β3 , β3 , β3 , β3 ]
s=2

s=1

s=0
Simplified Rep nodes can be decoded in at most log2 N time-steps
The time complexity is reduced from O(N) to O(log2 N)
Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 12 / 14
 Conclusion

Conclusion

We proposed Simplified SCL

Faster decoding of Rate-1, Rate-0 and Rep nodes
non-approximated formulation
Guaranteed equivalence with conventional SCL
1
Polar code of length 2048 and rate 2
Conventional SCL decoding requires 6142 time-steps
Simplified SCL decoding requires 1741 time-steps
More than a factor of 3.5× speed-up
Ongoing research: extending the technique to SPC nodes and
implement it on hardware

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 13 / 14
 Conclusion

Thank you!

Seyyed Ali Hashemi (McGill) SSCL Decoding of Polar Codes ISIT 2016 14 / 14