Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are usually decoded by running an iterative belief-propagation algorithm over the factor graph of the code. In the traditional message-passing schedule, in each iteration all the variable nodes, and subsequently all the factor nodes, pass new messages to their neighbors. Recently several studies show that serial scheduling, in which messages are generated using the latest available information, significantly improves the convergence speed in terms of number of iterations. It was observed experimentally in several studies that the serial schedule converges in exactly half the number of iterations compared to the standard parallel schedule. In this correspondence we provide a theoretical motivation for this observation by proving it for single-path graphs.
Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are usually decoded by running an iterative belief-propagation algorithm over the factor graph of the code. In the traditional message-passing schedule, in each iteration all the variable nodes, and subsequently all the factor nodes, pass new messages to their neighbors. Recently several studies show that serial scheduling, in which messages are generated using the latest available information, significantly improves the convergence speed in terms of number of iterations. It was observed experimentally in several studies that the serial schedule converges in exactly half the number of iterations compared to the standard parallel schedule. In this correspondence we provide a theoretical motivation for this observation by proving it for single-path graphs.
Abstract — Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes are usually decoded by running an iterative belief-propagation, or message-passing, algorithm over the factor graph of the code. The traditional message-passing schedule consists of updating all the variable nodes in the graph, using the same pre-update information, followed by updating all the check nodes of the graph, again, using the same pre-update information. Recently several studies show that sequential scheduling, in which messages are generated using the latest available information, significantly improves the convergence speed in terms of number of iterations. Sequential scheduling raises the problem of finding the best sequence of message updates. This paper presents practical scheduling strategies that use the value of the messages in the graph to find the next message to be updated. Simulation results show that these informed update sequences require significantly fewer iterations than standard sequential schedules. Complexity and implementability issues are also addressed. Index Terms — Belief propagation-algorithm, messagepassing schedule, error-control codes, low-density paritycheck codes. I.
Serial decoding schedules for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are described and analyzed. Conventionally, in each iteration all the variable nodes and subsequently all the check nodes send messages to their neighbors (“flooding schedule”). In contrast, in the considered methods, the updating of the nodes is implemented according to a serial schedule. The evolution of the decoding algorithm’s computation tree under serial scheduling is analyzed. The analysis shows that it grows twice as fast in comparison to the flooding schedule’s computation tree, indicating that the serial schedule propagates information twice as fast in the code’s underlying graph. Furthermore, asymptotic analysis of the serial schedule’s convergence rate is done using the Density Evolution (DE) algorithm. Applied to various ensembles of LDPC codes, it shows that when working near the ensemble’s threshold, for long enough codes the serial schedule is expected to converge in half the number of iterations compared to the standard flooding schedule. This observation is generally proved for the Binary Erasure Channel (BEC) under some likely assumptions. Finally, an accompanying concentration theorem is proved, justifying the asymptotic DE analysis assumptions. 1
Conventionally, in each low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoding iteration all the variable nodes and subsequently all the check nodes send messages to their neighbors (flooding schedule). An alternative, more efficient, approach is to update the nodes' messages serially (serial schedule). A theoretical analysis of serial message passing decoding schedules is presented. In particular, the evolution of the computation tree under serial scheduling is analyzed. It shows that the tree grows twice as fast in comparison to the flooding schedule's one, indicating that the serial schedule propagates information twice as fast in the code's underlying graph. Furthermore, an asymptotic analysis of the serial schedule's convergence rate is done using the density evolution (DE) algorithm. Applied to various ensembles of LDPC codes, it shows that for long codes the serial schedule is expected to converge in half the number of iterations compared to the standard flooding schedule, when working near the ensemble's threshold. This observation is generally proved for the binary erasure channel (BEC) under some natural assumptions. Finally, an accompanying concentration theorem is proved.
Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are usually decoded by running an iterative belief-propagation, or message-passing, algorithm over the factor graph of the code. The traditional message-passing schedule consists of updating all the variable nodes in the graph, using the same pre-update information, followed by updating all the check nodes of the graph, again, using the same pre-update information. Recently several studies show that sequential scheduling, in which messages are generated using the latest available information, significantly improves the convergence speed in terms of number of iterations. Sequential scheduling raises the problem of finding the best sequence of message updates. This paper presents practical scheduling strategies that use the value of the messages in the graph to find the next message to be updated. Simulation results show that these informed update sequences require significantly fewer iterations than standard sequential schedules. Furthermore, the paper shows that informed scheduling solves some standard trapping set errors. Therefore, it also outperforms traditional scheduling for a large numbers of iterations. Complexity and implementability issues are also addressed.
An efficient decoding schedule for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that outperforms the conventional approach, in terms of both complexity and performance, is presented. Conventionally, in each iteration, all symbol nodes and, subsequently, all the check nodes, send messages to their neighbors ("flooding schedule"). In contrast, in the proposed method, the updating of nodes is performed according to a serial schedule which propagates the information twice as fast. A density evolution (DE) algorithm for asymptotic analysis of the new schedule is derived, showing that, when working near the code's capacity, the decoder converges in approximately half the number of iterations. In addition, a concentration theorem is proved, showing that, for a randomly chosen serial schedule, code graph, and decoder input, the decoder's performance approaches its expected one as predicted by the DE algorithm, when the code length increases.
The major drawback of the LDPC codes versus the turbo-codes is their comparative low convergence speed: 25-30 iterations vs. 8-10 iterations for turbo-codes. Recently, Hocevar showed by simulations that the convergence rate of the LDPC decoder can be accelerated by exploiting a `turbo-scheduling' applied on the bit-node messages (rows of the parity check matrix). In this paper, we show analytically that the convergence rate for this type of scheduling is about two times increased for most of the regular LDPC codes. Second we prove that `turbo-scheduling' applied on the rows of the parity check matrix is identical belief propagation algorithm as standard message passing algorithm. Furthermore, we propose two new message passing schedules: 1) a turbo-scheduling is applied on the check-node messages (columns of the parity check matrix); and 2) a hybrid version of both previous schedules where the turbo-effect is applied on both check-nodes and bit-nodes. Frame error rate simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed schedules