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Decoding linear codes via optimization and graph-based techniques

Mohammad Hossein Taghavi

Published Jan 1, 2008• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have made it possible to communicate at information rates very close to the Shannon capacity by combining sparsity with quasi- randomness, which enables the use of low-complexity iterative message-passing (IMP) decoders. So far, most systematic studies of IMP decoders have focused on evaluating the average performance of random ensembles of LDPC codes with infinite length. However, the statistical nature of IMP algorithms does not seem very suitable for rigorous analysis the decoding of individual finite-length codes. The need for finite-length studies are most critical in applications such as data storage, where the required decoding error rate is too low to be verifiable by simulation. As an alternative to IMP algorithms, linear programming (LP) decoding is based on relaxing the optimal decoding into a linear optimization. The geometric nature of this approach makes it more amenable to deterministic finite-length analysis than IMP decoding. On the other hand, LP decoding is computationally more complex than IMP decoding, due to both the large number of constraints in the relaxed problem, and the inefficiency of using general -purpose LP solvers. In this dissertation, we study several aspects of LP decoding, starting by some steps toward reducing its complexity. We introduce an adaptive implementation of LP decoding, where the relaxed problem is replaced by a sequence of subproblems of much smaller size, resulting in a complexity reduction by orders of magnitude. This is followed by a sparse implementation of an interior-point LP solver which exploits the structure of the decoding problem. We further propose a cutting- plane approach to improve the error-correcting capability of LP decoding. Along the way, several properties are proved for LP decoding and its proposed variations. We continue by investigating the application of an optimization-based approach to decoding linear codes in the presence of intersymbol interference (ISI). By relaxing the optimal detection problem into a linear program, we derive a new graphical representation for the ISI channel, which can be used for combined equalization and decoding by LP or IMP decoders. Finally, in a separate piece of work, we study the effect of nonlinearities on the multiuser capacity of optical fibers

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Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have made it possible to communicate at information rates very close to the Shannon capacity by combining sparsity with quasi- randomness, which enables the use of low-complexity iterative message-passing (IMP) decoders. So far, most systematic studies of IMP decoders have focused on evaluating the average performance of random ensembles of LDPC codes with infinite length. However, the statistical nature of IMP algorithms does not seem very suitable for rigorous analysis the decoding of individual finite-length codes. The need for finite-length studies are most critical in applications such as data storage, where the required decoding error rate is too low to be verifiable by simulation. As an alternative to IMP algorithms, linear programming (LP) decoding is based on relaxing the optimal decoding into a linear optimization. The geometric nature of this approach makes it more amenable to deterministic finite-length analysis than IMP decoding. On the other hand, LP decoding is computationally more complex than IMP decoding, due to both the large number of constraints in the relaxed problem, and the inefficiency of using general -purpose LP solvers. In this dissertation, we study several aspects of LP decoding, starting by some steps toward reducing its complexity. We introduce an adaptive implementation of LP decoding, where the relaxed problem is replaced by a sequence of subproblems of much smaller size, resulting in a complexity reduction by orders of magnitude. This is followed by a sparse implementation of an interior-point LP solver which exploits the structure of the decoding problem. We further propose a cutting- plane approach to improve the error-correcting capability of LP decoding. Along the way, several properties are proved for LP decoding and its proposed variations. We continue by investigating the application of an optimization-based approach to decoding linear codes in the presence of intersymbol interference (ISI). By relaxing the optimal detection problem into a linear program, we derive a new graphical representation for the ISI channel, which can be used for combined equalization and decoding by LP or IMP decoders. Finally, in a separate piece of work, we study the effect of nonlinearities on the multiuser capacity of optical fibers
While linear programming (LP) decoding provides more flexibility for finite-length performance analysis than iterative message-passing (IMP) decoding, it is computationally more complex to implement in its original form, due to both the large size of the relaxed LP problem and the inefficiency of using general-purpose LP solvers. This paper explores ideas for fast LP decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. By modifying the previously reported Adaptive LP decoding scheme to allow removal of unnecessary constraints, we first prove that LP decoding can be performed by solving a number of LP problems that each contains at most one linear constraint derived from each of the parity-check constraints. By exploiting this property, we study a sparse interior-point implementation for solving this sequence of linear programs. Since the most complex part of each iteration of the interior-point algorithm is the solution of a (usually ill-conditioned) system of linear equations for finding the step direction, we propose a preconditioning algorithm to facilitate solving such systems iteratively. The proposed preconditioning algorithm is similar to the encoding procedure of LDPC codes, and we demonstrate its effectiveness via both analytical methods and computer simulation results.
Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have been the focus of much research over the past decade thanks to their near Shannon limit performance and to their efficient message- passing (MP) decoding algorithms. However, the error floor phenomenon observed in MP decoding, which manifests itself as an abrupt change in the slope of the error-rate curve, has hindered the adoption of LDPC codes and MP decoders in some applications requiring very low error rates. As an alternative to MP decoding, linear programming (LP) decoding is an approximation to maximum-likelihood decoding by relaxing the optimal decoding problem into a linear optimization problem. It has been noticed that, when the symbols error probability in channel output is low, LP decoding has superior error correction performance. However, due to the inefficiency of general- purpose LP solvers which are not optimized for solving LP problems, LP decoding is computationally more complex than MP decoding, especially for codes of large block size. In this dissertation, we first design an efficient exhaustive search algorithm to find all small error-prone substructures, some of which are commonly blamed for certain decoding failures of MP decoding. Then, we investigate the cause of error floors in LDPC codes from the perspective of the MP decoder implementation, with special attention to limitations that decrease the numerical accuracy of messages passed during decoding, and propose a quantization method for fixed-point implementation of MP decoding which significantly improves the error-floor performance by overcoming the limitations of standard quantization rules. For LP decoding, we improve the error-correcting capability of LP decoding by using an effective algorithm to generate additional redundant parity-check constraints which eliminate certain undesired solutions to LP decoding problem. We further propose an efficient message-passing algorithm to solve the LP decoding problem. This algorithm is based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), a classic technique in convex optimization theory, and our key contribution is a novel, efficient projection algorithm that can improve the decoding speed of the ADMM- based LP decoder. The last part of this dissertation is a separate piece of work on optimizing video transmission over distributed cognitive radio network
While linear programming (LP) decoding provides more flexibility for finite-length performance analysis than iterative message-passing (IMP) decoding, it is computationally more complex to implement in its original form, due to both the large size of the relaxed LP problem, and the inefficiency of using general-purpose LP solvers. This paper explores ideas for fast LP decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. We first prove, by modifying the previously reported Adaptive LP decoding scheme to allow removal of unnecessary constraints, that LP decoding can be performed by solving a number of LP problems that contain at most one linear constraint derived from each of the parity-check constraints. By exploiting this property, we study a sparse interior-point implementation for solving this sequence of linear programs. Since the most complex part of each iteration of the interior-point algorithm is the solution of a (usually ill-conditioned) system of linear equations for finding the step direction, we propose a preconditioning algorithm to facilitate iterative solution of such systems. The proposed preconditioning algorithm is similar to the encoding procedure of LDPC codes, and we demonstrate its effectiveness via both analytical methods and computer simulation results.
Linear programming (LP) decoding for low-density parity-check codes (and related domains such as compressed sensing) has received increased attention over recent years because of its practical performance-coming close to that of iterative decoding algorithms-and its amenability to finite-blocklength analysis. Several works starting with the work of Feldman showed how to analyze LP decoding using properties of expander graphs. This line of analysis works for only low error rates, about a couple of orders of magnitude lower than the empirically observed performance. It is possible to do better for the case of random noise, as shown by Daskalakis and Koetter and Vontobel. Building on work of Koetter and Vontobel, we obtain a novel understanding of LP decoding, which allows us to establish a 0.05 fraction of correctable errors for rate-½ codes; this comes very close to the performance of iterative decoders and is significantly higher than the best previously noted correctable bit error rate for LP decoding. Our analysis exploits an explicit connection between LP decoding and message-passing algorithms and, unlike other techniques, directly works with the primal linear program. An interesting byproduct of our method is a notion of a “locally optimal” solution that we show to always be globally optimal (i.e., it is the nearest codeword). Such a solution can in fact be found in near-linear time by a “reweighted” version of the min-sum algorithm, obviating the need for LP. Our analysis implies, in particular, that this reweighted version of the min-sum decoder corrects up to a 0.05 fraction of errors.
Linear programming decoding for low-density parity check codes (and related domains such as compressed sensing) has received increased attention over recent years because of its practical performance --coming close to that of iterative decoding algorithms--- and its amenability to finite-blocklength analysis. Several works starting with the work of Feldman et al. showed how to analyze LP decoding using properties of expander graphs. This line of analysis works for only low error rates, about a couple of orders of magnitude lower than the empirically observed performance. It is possible to do better for the case of random noise, as shown by Daskalakis et al. and Koetter and Vontobel. Building on work of Koetter and Vontobel, we obtain a novel understanding of LP decoding, which allows us to establish a 0.05-fraction of correctable errors for rate-1/2 codes; this comes very close to the performance of iterative decoders and is significantly higher than the best previously noted correctable bit error rate for LP decoding. Unlike other techniques, our analysis directly works with the primal linear program and exploits an explicit connection between LP decoding and message passing algorithms.
This paper explores ideas for fast linear programming (LP) decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. We first propose a modification of adaptive LP decoding, and prove that it performs LP decoding by solving a number of linear programs that contain at most one linear constraint derived from each of the parity-check constraints. Then, as a step toward designing an efficient LP solver that exploits the structure of LDPC codes, we study a sparse interior-point implementation for solving this sequence of linear programs. Since the most complex part of each iteration of the interior-point algorithms is to solve a (usually ill-conditioned) system of linear equations for finding the step direction, we propose a framework for designing preconditioners to be used with the iterative methods for solving these systems. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated via both analytical and simulation results.