Fountain coding with decoder side information

In this contribution, we consider the application of Digital Fountain (DF) codes to the problem of data transmission when side information is available at the decoder. The side information is modelled as a "virtual" channel output when original information sequence is the input. For two cases of the system model, which model both the virtual and the actual transmission channel either as a binary erasure channel or as a binary input additive white Gaussian noise (BIAWGN) channel, we propose methods of enhancing the design of standard non-systematic DF codes by optimizing their output degree distribution based oil the side information assumption. In addition, a systematic Raptor design has been employed as a possible solution to the problem

Bounds on the Error Probability of Raptor Codes under Maximum Likelihood Decoding

In this paper upper and lower bounds on the probability of decoding failure under maximum likelihood decoding are derived for different (nonbinary) Raptor code constructions. In particular four different constructions are considered; (i) the standard Raptor code construction, (ii) a multi-edge type construction, (iii) a construction where the Raptor code is nonbinary but the generator matrix of the LT code has only binary entries, (iv) a combination of (ii) and (iii). The latter construction resembles the one employed by RaptorQ codes, which at the time of writing this article represents the state of the art in fountain codes. The bounds are shown to be tight, and provide an important aid for the design of Raptor codes.Comment: Submitted for revie