The Road From Classical to Quantum Codes: A Hashing Bound Approaching Design Procedure

Powerful Quantum Error Correction Codes (QECCs) are required for stabilizing and protecting fragile qubits against the undesirable effects of quantum decoherence. Similar to classical codes, hashing bound approaching QECCs may be designed by exploiting a concatenated code structure, which invokes iterative decoding. Therefore, in this paper we provide an extensive step-by-step tutorial for designing EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) chart aided concatenated quantum codes based on the underlying quantum-to-classical isomorphism. These design lessons are then exemplified in the context of our proposed Quantum Irregular Convolutional Code (QIRCC), which constitutes the outer component of a concatenated quantum code. The proposed QIRCC can be dynamically adapted to match any given inner code using EXIT charts, hence achieving a performance close to the hashing bound. It is demonstrated that our QIRCC-based optimized design is capable of operating within 0.4 dB of the noise limit

Decoding Schemes for Foliated Sparse Quantum Error Correcting Codes

Foliated quantum codes are a resource for fault-tolerant measurement-based quantum error correction for quantum repeaters and for quantum computation. They represent a general approach to integrating a range of possible quantum error correcting codes into larger fault-tolerant networks. Here we present an efficient heuristic decoding scheme for foliated quantum codes, based on message passing between primal and dual code 'sheets'. We test this decoder on two different families of sparse quantum error correcting code: turbo codes and bicycle codes, and show reasonably high numerical performance thresholds. We also present a construction schedule for building such code states.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Iterative decoding for MIMO channels via modified sphere decoding

In recent years, soft iterative decoding techniques have been shown to greatly improve the bit error rate performance of various communication systems. For multiantenna systems employing space-time codes, however, it is not clear what is the best way to obtain the soft information required of the iterative scheme with low complexity. In this paper, we propose a modification of the Fincke-Pohst (sphere decoding) algorithm to estimate the maximum a posteriori probability of the received symbol sequence. The new algorithm solves a nonlinear integer least squares problem and, over a wide range of rates and signal-to-noise ratios, has polynomial-time complexity. Performance of the algorithm, combined with convolutional, turbo, and low-density parity check codes, is demonstrated on several multiantenna channels. The results for systems that employ space-time modulation schemes seem to indicate that the best performing schemes are those that support the highest mutual information between the transmitted and received signals, rather than the best diversity gain

Entanglement-assisted quantum turbo codes

An unexpected breakdown in the existing theory of quantum serial turbo coding is that a quantum convolutional encoder cannot simultaneously be recursive and non-catastrophic. These properties are essential for quantum turbo code families to have a minimum distance growing with blocklength and for their iterative decoding algorithm to converge, respectively. Here, we show that the entanglement-assisted paradigm simplifies the theory of quantum turbo codes, in the sense that an entanglement-assisted quantum (EAQ) convolutional encoder can possess both of the aforementioned desirable properties. We give several examples of EAQ convolutional encoders that are both recursive and non-catastrophic and detail their relevant parameters. We then modify the quantum turbo decoding algorithm of Poulin et al., in order to have the constituent decoders pass along only "extrinsic information" to each other rather than a posteriori probabilities as in the decoder of Poulin et al., and this leads to a significant improvement in the performance of unassisted quantum turbo codes. Other simulation results indicate that entanglement-assisted turbo codes can operate reliably in a noise regime 4.73 dB beyond that of standard quantum turbo codes, when used on a memoryless depolarizing channel. Furthermore, several of our quantum turbo codes are within 1 dB or less of their hashing limits, so that the performance of quantum turbo codes is now on par with that of classical turbo codes. Finally, we prove that entanglement is the resource that enables a convolutional encoder to be both non-catastrophic and recursive because an encoder acting on only information qubits, classical bits, gauge qubits, and ancilla qubits cannot simultaneously satisfy them.Comment: 31 pages, software for simulating EA turbo codes is available at http://code.google.com/p/ea-turbo/ and a presentation is available at http://markwilde.com/publications/10-10-EA-Turbo.ppt ; v2, revisions based on feedback from journal; v3, modification of the quantum turbo decoding algorithm that leads to improved performance over results in v2 and the results of Poulin et al. in arXiv:0712.288

Turbo Decoding and Detection for Wireless Applications

A historical perspective of turbo coding and turbo transceivers inspired by the generic turbo principles is provided, as it evolved from Shannon’s visionary predictions. More specifically, we commence by discussing the turbo principles, which have been shown to be capable of performing close to Shannon’s capacity limit. We continue by reviewing the classic maximum a posteriori probability decoder. These discussions are followed by studying the effect of a range of system parameters in a systematic fashion, in order to gauge their performance ramifications. In the second part of this treatise, we focus our attention on the family of iterative receivers designed for wireless communication systems, which were partly inspired by the invention of turbo codes. More specifically, the family of iteratively detected joint coding and modulation schemes, turbo equalization, concatenated spacetime and channel coding arrangements, as well as multi-user detection and three-stage multimedia systems are highlighted