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Statistical physics of irregular low-density parity-check codes

Renato Vicente, David Saad, Kabashima, Yoshiyuki

Published Sep 22, 2000• 15 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Low-density parity-check codes with irregular constructions have recently been shown to outperform the most advanced error-correcting codes to date. In this paper we apply methods of statistical physics to study the typical properties of simple irregular codes. We use the replica method to find a phase transition which coincides with Shannon's coding bound when appropriate parameters are chosen. The decoding by belief propagation is also studied using statistical physics arguments; the theoretical solutions obtained are in good agreement with simulation results. We compare the performance of irregular codes with that of regular codes and discuss the factors that contribute to the improvement in performance.

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neural information processing systems•Nov 29, 1999•1 citation
Low-density parity-check codes with irregular constructions have recently been shown to outperform the most advanced error-correcting codes to date. In this paper we apply methods of statistical physics to study the typical properties of simple irregular codes. We use the replica method to find a phase transition which coincides with Shannon's coding bound when appropriate parameters are chosen. The decoding by belief propagation is also studied using statistical physics arguments; the theoretical solutions obtained are in good agreement with simulation results. We compare the performance of irregular codes with that of regular codes and discuss the factors that contribute to the improvement in performance.
Low-density parity-check codes with irregular constructions have recently been shown to outperform the most advanced error-correcting codes to date. In this paper we apply methods of statistical physics to study the typical properties of simple irregular codes. We use the replica method to find a phase transition which coincides with Shannon's coding bound when appropriate parameters are chosen. The decoding by belief propagation is also studied using statistical physics arguments; the theoretical solutions obtained are in good agreement with simulation results. We compare the performance of irregular codes with that of regular codes and discuss the factors that contribute to the improvement in performance.
We construct new families of error-correcting codes based on Gallager's (1973) low-density parity-check codes. We improve on Gallager's results by introducing irregular parity-check matrices and a new rigorous analysis of hard-decision decoding of these codes. We also provide efficient methods for finding good irregular structures for such decoding algorithms. Our rigorous analysis based on martingales, our methodology for constructing good irregular codes, and the demonstration that irregular structure improves performance constitute key points of our contribution. We also consider irregular codes under belief propagation. We report the results of experiments testing the efficacy of irregular codes on both binary-symmetric and Gaussian channels. For example, using belief propagation, for rate 1/4 codes on 16000 bits over a binary-symmetric channel, previous low-density parity-check codes can correct up to approximately 16% errors, while our codes correct over 17%. In some cases our results come very close to reported results for turbo codes, suggesting that variations of irregular low density parity-check codes may be able to match or beat turbo code performance.
A variation of Gallager error-correcting codes is investigated using statistical mechanics. In codes of this type, a given message is encoded into a codeword that comprises Boolean sums of message bits selected by two randomly constructed sparse matrices. The similarity of these codes to Ising spin systems with random interaction makes it possible to assess their typical performance by analytical methods developed in the study of disordered systems. The typical case solutions obtained via the replica method are consistent with those obtained in simulations using belief propagation decoding. We discuss the practical implications of the results obtained and suggest a computationally efficient construction for one of the more practical configurations.
We construct new families of low-density parity-check codes, which we call irregular codes. When decoded using belief propagation, our codes can correct more errors than previously known low-density codes. Our improved performance comes from using codes based on irregular random bipartite graphs, based on the work of Luby et al. (1997). Previously studied low-density codes have been derived from regular bipartite graphs. Initial experimental results for our irregular codes suggest that, with improvements, irregular codes may be able to match turbo code performance.
We design low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that perform at rates extremely close to the Shannon capacity. The codes are built from highly irregular bipartite graphs with carefully chosen degree patterns on both sides. Our theoretical analysis of the codes is based on the work of Richardson and Urbanke (see ibid., vol.47, no.2, p.599-618, 2000). Assuming that the underlying communication channel is symmetric, we prove that the probability densities at the message nodes of the graph possess a certain symmetry. Using this symmetry property we then show that, under the assumption of no cycles, the message densities always converge as the number of iterations tends to infinity. Furthermore, we prove a stability condition which implies an upper bound on the fraction of errors that a belief-propagation decoder can correct when applied to a code induced from a bipartite graph with a given degree distribution. Our codes are found by optimizing the degree structure of the underlying graphs. We develop several strategies to perform this optimization. We also present some simulation results for the codes found which show that the performance of the codes is very close to the asymptotic theoretical bounds.
The performance of regular and irregular Gallager-type error-correcting code is investigated via methods of statistical physics. The transmitted codeword comprises products of the original message bits selected by two randomly-constructed sparse matrices; the number of non-zero row/column elements in these matrices constitutes a family of codes. We show that Shannon's channel capacity may be saturated in equilibrium for many of the regular codes while slightly lower performance is obtained for others which may be of higher practical relevance. Decoding aspects are considered by employing the TAP approach which is identical to the commonly used belief-propagation-based decoding. We show that irregular codes may saturate Shannon's capacity but with improved dynamical properties.