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IEEE Transactions on Communications

Reduced-Complexity Decoding of LDPC Codes

Published Jul 1, 2005• 27 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Reduced-Complexity Decoding of LDPC Codes Various log-likelihood-ratio-based belief-propagation (LLR- BP) decoding algorithms and their reduced-complexity derivatives for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are presented. Numerically accurate representations of the check-node update computation used in LLR-BP decoding are described. Furthermore, approximate representation of the decoding computations are shown to achieve a reduction in complexity, by simplifying the check-node update or symbol-node update, or both. In particular, two main approaches for simplified check-node updates are presented that are based on the so-called min-sum approximation coupled with either a normalization term or an additive offset term. Density evolution is used to analyze the performance of these decoding algorithms, to determine the optimum values of the key parameters, and to evaluate finite quantization effects. Simulation results show that these reduced-complexity decoding algorithms for LDPC codes achieve a performance very close to that of the BP algorithm. The unified treatment of decoding techniques for LDPC codes presented here provides flexibility in selecting the appropriate scheme from a performance, latency, computational complexity, and memory-requirement perspective.

DOI
10.1109/tcomm.2005.851637

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Reduced-Complexity Decoding of LDPC Codes Various log-likelihood-ratio-based belief-propagation (LLR- BP) decoding algorithms and their reduced-complexity derivatives for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are presented. Numerically accurate representations of the check-node update computation used in LLR-BP decoding are described. Furthermore, approximate representation of the decoding computations are shown to achieve a reduction in complexity, by simplifying the check-node update or symbol-node update, or both. In particular, two main approaches for simplified check-node updates are presented that are based on the so-called min-sum approximation coupled with either a normalization term or an additive offset term. Density evolution is used to analyze the performance of these decoding algorithms, to determine the optimum values of the key parameters, and to evaluate finite quantization effects. Simulation results show that these reduced-complexity decoding algorithms for LDPC codes achieve a performance very close to that of the BP algorithm. The unified treatment of decoding techniques for LDPC codes presented here provides flexibility in selecting the appropriate scheme from a performance, latency, computational complexity, and memory-requirement perspective.
Various log-likelihood-ratio-based belief-propagation (LLR-BP) decoding algorithms and their reduced-complexity derivatives for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are presented. Numerically accurate representations of the check-node update computation used in LLR-BP decoding are described. Furthermore, approximate representations of the decoding computations are shown to achieve a reduction in complexity by simplifying the check-node update, or symbol-node update, or both. In particular, two main approaches for simplified check-node updates are presented that are based on the so-called min-sum approximation coupled with either a normalization term or an additive offset term. Density evolution is used to analyze the performance of these decoding algorithms, to determine the optimum values of the key parameters, and to evaluate finite quantization effects. Simulation results show that these reduced-complexity decoding algorithms for LDPC codes achieve a performance very close to that of the BP algorithm. The unified treatment of decoding techniques for LDPC codes presented here provides flexibility in selecting the appropriate scheme from performance, latency, computational-complexity, and memory-requirement perspectives.
Two methods are proposed to reduce the complexity of the belief propagation (BP) decoding for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, with the focus on the layered decoding for quasi-cyclic LDPC (QC-LDPC) codes. The two methods can be separately incorporated into the layered decoding procedures and combined seamlessly to provide the two-fold complexity reduction. In the first method, the message updates regarding a subset of variable nodes are omitted. To construct the subset, the most reliable bit-level channels, derived fromM-ary input channels, are identified. Then, we select the variable nodes with initial log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) exceeding a threshold among the ones assigned to the most reliable bit-level channels to form the subset. The threshold is designed and adjusted based on characteristics of the most reliable bit-level channels. Our numerical results demonstrate that the first method significantly reduces the complexity with negligibly impacting the error-correcting performance. In the second method, each layer of base graphs of QC-LDPC codes uses either sum-product algorithm (SPA) or min-sum algorithm (MSA) to update LLRs. A degree-based algorithm is presented to determine the layers employing either SPA or MSA. We compare with two intuitive methods: 1) applying SPA to randomly selected layers and MSA to the remaining layers, and 2) applying SPA to the core layers of 5G NR LDPC codes and MSA to the remaining layers. According to the numerical results, the degree-based algorithm maximally reduces the complexity while maintaining the same performance. To evaluate the joint method, the first method is applied on top of the second method. Further complexity reduction is achieved without degrading the performance of the second method.
Efficient implementations of the sum-product algorithm (SPA) are presented for decoding low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes using log-likelihood ratios (LLR) as messages between symbol and parity-check nodes. Various reduced-complexity derivatives of the LLR-SPA are proposed. Both serial and parallel implementations are investigated, leading to trellis and tree topologies, respectively. Furthermore, by exploiting the inherent robustness of LLRs, it is shown, via simulations, that coarse quantization tables are sufficient to implement complex core operations with negligible or no loss in performance. The unified treatment of decoding techniques for LDPC codes presented here provides flexibility in selecting the appropriate design point in high-speed applications from a performance, latency and computational complexity perspective.
Low-Density Parity check (LDPC) codes offer high-performance error correction near the Shannon limit which employs large code lengths and some iterations in the decoding process. The conventional decoding algorithm of LDPC is the Log Likelihood Ratio based Belief Propagation (LLR BP) which is also known as the `Sum-Product algorithm' which gives the best decoding performance and requires the most computational complexity and implementations with increased hardware complexity. Another simpler variant of this algorithm is used which is known as `min-sum algorithm' which reduces computational complexity as well as hardware complexity but with reduced accuracy. This paper analyzes the reason min-sum algorithm is more prone to errors when compared to the sum-product algorithm, and puts forward two improved algorithms which improve the performance of the min-sum algorithm with comparable algorithmic complexity.