Iterative Algebraic Soft-Decision List Decoding of Reed-Solomon Codes

In this paper, we present an iterative soft-decision decoding algorithm for Reed-Solomon codes offering both complexity and performance advantages over previously known decoding algorithms. Our algorithm is a list decoding algorithm which combines two powerful soft decision decoding techniques which were previously regarded in the literature as competitive, namely, the Koetter-Vardy algebraic soft-decision decoding algorithm and belief-propagation based on adaptive parity check matrices, recently proposed by Jiang and Narayanan. Building on the Jiang-Narayanan algorithm, we present a belief-propagation based algorithm with a significant reduction in computational complexity. We introduce the concept of using a belief-propagation based decoder to enhance the soft-input information prior to decoding with an algebraic soft-decision decoder. Our algorithm can also be viewed as an interpolation multiplicity assignment scheme for algebraic soft-decision decoding of Reed-Solomon codes.Comment: Submitted to IEEE for publication in Jan 200

Soft-Decision Low-Complexity Chase Decoders for the RS(255,239) Code

[EN] In this work, we present a new architecture for soft-decision Reed-Solomon (RS) Low-Complexity Chase (LCC) decoding. The proposed architecture is scalable and can be used for a high number of test vectors. We propose a novel Multiplicity Assignment stage that sorts and stores only the location of the errors inside the symbols and the powers of a that identify the positions of the symbols in the frame. Novel schematics for the Syndrome Update and Symbol Modification blocks that are adapted to the proposed sorting stage are also presented. We also propose novel solutions for the problems that arise when a high number of test vectors is processed. We implemented three decoders: a h = 4 LCC decoder and two decoders that only decode 31 and 60 test vectors of true h = 5 and h = 6 LCC decoders, respectively. For example, our h = 4 decoder requires 29% less look-up tables in Virtex-V Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices than the best soft-decision RS decoder published to date, while has a 0.07 dB coding gain over that decoder.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and FEDER grant number TEC2015-70858-C2-2-RTorres Carot, V.; Valls Coquillat, J.; Canet Subiela, MJ.; García Herrero, FM. (2019). Soft-Decision Low-Complexity Chase Decoders for the RS(255,239) Code. Electronics. 8(1):1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics8010010S11381Cideciyan, R., Gustlin, M., Li, M., Wang, J., & Wang, Z. (2013). Next generation backplane and copper cable challenges. IEEE Communications Magazine, 51(12), 130-136. doi:10.1109/mcom.2013.6685768Koetter, R., & Vardy, A. (2003). Algebraic soft-decision decoding of reed-solomon codes. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 49(11), 2809-2825. doi:10.1109/tit.2003.819332Sudan, M. (1997). Decoding of Reed Solomon Codes beyond the Error-Correction Bound. Journal of Complexity, 13(1), 180-193. doi:10.1006/jcom.1997.0439Guruswami, V., & Sudan, M. (1999). Improved decoding of Reed-Solomon and algebraic-geometry codes. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 45(6), 1757-1767. doi:10.1109/18.782097Jiang, J., & Narayanan, K. R. (2008). Algebraic Soft-Decision Decoding of Reed–Solomon Codes Using Bit-Level Soft Information. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 54(9), 3907-3928. doi:10.1109/tit.2008.928238Jiangli Zhu, Xinmiao Zhang, & Zhongfeng Wang. (2009). Backward Interpolation Architecture for Algebraic Soft-Decision Reed–Solomon Decoding. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 17(11), 1602-1615. doi:10.1109/tvlsi.2008.2005575Jiangli Zhu, & Xinmiao Zhang. (2008). Efficient VLSI Architecture for Soft-Decision Decoding of Reed–Solomon Codes. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 55(10), 3050-3062. doi:10.1109/tcsi.2008.923169Zhongfeng Wang, & Jun Ma. (2006). High-Speed Interpolation Architecture for Soft-Decision Decoding of Reed–Solomon Codes. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 14(9), 937-950. doi:10.1109/tvlsi.2006.884046Zhang, X. (2006). Reduced Complexity Interpolation Architecture for Soft-Decision Reed–Solomon Decoding. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 14(10), 1156-1161. doi:10.1109/tvlsi.2006.884177Xinmiao Zhang, & Parhi, K. K. (2005). Fast factorization architecture in soft-decision Reed-Solomon decoding. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 13(4), 413-426. doi:10.1109/tvlsi.2004.842914Bellorado, J., & Kavcic, A. (2010). Low-Complexity Soft-Decoding Algorithms for Reed–Solomon Codes—Part I: An Algebraic Soft-In Hard-Out Chase Decoder. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 56(3), 945-959. doi:10.1109/tit.2009.2039073García-Herrero, F., Valls, J., & Meher, P. K. (2011). High-Speed RS(255, 239) Decoder Based on LCC Decoding. Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing, 30(6), 1643-1669. doi:10.1007/s00034-011-9327-4Zhang, W., Wang, H., & Pan, B. (2013). Reduced-Complexity LCC Reed–Solomon Decoder Based on Unified Syndrome Computation. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 21(5), 974-978. doi:10.1109/tvlsi.2012.2197030Peng, X., Zhang, W., Ji, W., Liang, Z., & Liu, Y. (2015). Reduced-Complexity Multiplicity Assignment Algorithm and Architecture for Low-Complexity Chase Decoder of Reed-Solomon Codes. IEEE Communications Letters, 19(11), 1865-1868. doi:10.1109/lcomm.2015.2477495Lin, Y.-M., Hsu, C.-H., Chang, H.-C., & Lee, C.-Y. (2014). A 2.56 Gb/s Soft RS (255, 239) Decoder Chip for Optical Communication Systems. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, 61(7), 2110-2118. doi:10.1109/tcsi.2014.2298282Wu, Y. (2015). New Scalable Decoder Architectures for Reed–Solomon Codes. IEEE Transactions on Communications, 63(8), 2741-2761. doi:10.1109/tcomm.2015.2445759Garcia-Herrero, F., Canet, M. J., Valls, J., & Meher, P. K. (2012). High-Throughput Interpolator Architecture for Low-Complexity Chase Decoding of RS Codes. IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 20(3), 568-573. doi:10.1109/tvlsi.2010.210396

Performance enhancements for algebraic soft decision decoding of Reed-Solomon codes

In an attempt to determine the ultimate capabilities of the Sudan-Guruswami-Sudan-Kotter-Vardy algebraic soft decision decoding algorithm for Reed-Solomon codes, we present a new method, based on the Chernoff bound, for constructing multiplicity matrices. In many cases, this technique predicts that the potential performance of ASD decoding of RS codes is significantly better than previously thought

Performance Analysis of Algebraic Soft-Decision Decoding of Reed-Solomon Codes

We investigate the decoding region for Algebraic Soft-Decision Decoding (ASD) of Reed-Solomon codes in a discrete, memoryless, additive-noise channel. An expression is derived for the error radius within which the soft-decision decoder produces a list that contains the transmitted codeword. The error radius for ASD is shown to be larger than that of Guruswami-Sudan hard-decision decoding for a subset of low-rate codes. We then present an upper bound for ASD's probability of error, where an error is defined as the event that the decoder selects an erroneous codeword from its list. This new definition gives a more accurate bound on the probability of error of ASD. We also derive an estimate of the error-correction radius under multivariate interpolation decoding of a recent generalization of Reed-Solomon codes by F. Parvaresh and A. Vardy

Algebraic approaches to distributed compression and network error correction

Algebraic codes have been studied for decades and have extensive applications in communication and storage systems. In this dissertation, we propose several novel algebraic approaches for distributed compression and network error protection problems. In the first part of this dissertation we propose the usage of Reed-Solomon codes for compression of two nonbinary sources. Reed-Solomon codes are easy to design and offer natural rate adaptivity. We compare their performance with multistage LDPC codes and show that algebraic soft-decision decoding of Reed-Solomon codes can be used effectively under certain correlation structures. As part of this work we have proposed a method that adapts list decoding for the problem of syndrome decoding. This in turn allows us to arrive at improved methods for the compression of multicast network coding vectors. When more than two correlated sources are present, we consider a correlation model given by a system of linear equations. We propose a transformation of correlation model and a way to determine proper decoding schedules. Our scheme allows us to exploit more correlations than those in the previous work and the simulation results confirm its better performance. In the second part of this dissertation we study the network protection problem in the presence of adversarial errors and failures. In particular, we consider the usage of network coding for the problem of simultaneous protection of multiple unicast connections, under certain restrictions on the network topology. The proposed scheme allows the sharing of protection resources among multiple unicast connections. Simulations show that our proposed scheme saves network resources by 4%-15% compared to the protection scheme based on simple repetition codes, especially when the number of primary paths is large or the costs for establishing primary paths are high

On Multiple Decoding Attempts for Reed-Solomon Codes: A Rate-Distortion Approach

One popular approach to soft-decision decoding of Reed-Solomon (RS) codes is based on using multiple trials of a simple RS decoding algorithm in combination with erasing or flipping a set of symbols or bits in each trial. This paper presents a framework based on rate-distortion (RD) theory to analyze these multiple-decoding algorithms. By defining an appropriate distortion measure between an error pattern and an erasure pattern, the successful decoding condition, for a single errors-and-erasures decoding trial, becomes equivalent to distortion being less than a fixed threshold. Finding the best set of erasure patterns also turns into a covering problem which can be solved asymptotically by rate-distortion theory. Thus, the proposed approach can be used to understand the asymptotic performance-versus-complexity trade-off of multiple errors-and-erasures decoding of RS codes. This initial result is also extended a few directions. The rate-distortion exponent (RDE) is computed to give more precise results for moderate blocklengths. Multiple trials of algebraic soft-decision (ASD) decoding are analyzed using this framework. Analytical and numerical computations of the RD and RDE functions are also presented. Finally, simulation results show that sets of erasure patterns designed using the proposed methods outperform other algorithms with the same number of decoding trials.Comment: to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (Special Issue on Facets of Coding Theory: from Algorithms to Networks