High-Throughput Random Access via Codes on Graphs

Recently, contention resolution diversity slotted ALOHA (CRDSA) has been introduced as a simple but effective improvement to slotted ALOHA. It relies on MAC burst repetitions and on interference cancellation to increase the normalized throughput of a classic slotted ALOHA access scheme. CRDSA allows achieving a larger throughput than slotted ALOHA, at the price of an increased average transmitted power. A way to trade-off the increment of the average transmitted power and the improvement of the throughput is presented in this paper. Specifically, it is proposed to divide each MAC burst in k sub-bursts, and to encode them via a (n,k) erasure correcting code. The n encoded sub-bursts are transmitted over the MAC channel, according to specific time/frequency-hopping patterns. Whenever n-e>=k sub-bursts (of the same burst) are received without collisions, erasure decoding allows recovering the remaining e sub-bursts (which were lost due to collisions). An interference cancellation process can then take place, removing in e slots the interference caused by the e recovered sub-bursts, possibly allowing the correct decoding of sub-bursts related to other bursts. The process is thus iterated as for the CRDSA case.Comment: Presented at the Future Network and MobileSummit 2010 Conference, Florence (Italy), June 201

Spatially-Coupled Random Access on Graphs

In this paper we investigate the effect of spatial coupling applied to the recently-proposed coded slotted ALOHA (CSA) random access protocol. Thanks to the bridge between the graphical model describing the iterative interference cancelation process of CSA over the random access frame and the erasure recovery process of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the binary erasure channel (BEC), we propose an access protocol which is inspired by the convolutional LDPC code construction. The proposed protocol exploits the terminations of its graphical model to achieve the spatial coupling effect, attaining performance close to the theoretical limits of CSA. As for the convolutional LDPC code case, large iterative decoding thresholds are obtained by simply increasing the density of the graph. We show that the threshold saturation effect takes place by defining a suitable counterpart of the maximum-a-posteriori decoding threshold of spatially-coupled LDPC code ensembles. In the asymptotic setting, the proposed scheme allows sustaining a traffic close to 1 [packets/slot].Comment: To be presented at IEEE ISIT 2012, Bosto

Random access on graphs: A survey and new results

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ALOHA Random Access that Operates as a Rateless Code

Various applications of wireless Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications have rekindled the research interest in random access protocols, suitable to support a large number of connected devices. Slotted ALOHA and its derivatives represent a simple solution for distributed random access in wireless networks. Recently, a framed version of slotted ALOHA gained renewed interest due to the incorporation of successive interference cancellation (SIC) in the scheme, which resulted in substantially higher throughputs. Based on similar principles and inspired by the rateless coding paradigm, a frameless approach for distributed random access in slotted ALOHA framework is described in this paper. The proposed approach shares an operational analogy with rateless coding, expressed both through the user access strategy and the adaptive length of the contention period, with the objective to end the contention when the instantaneous throughput is maximized. The paper presents the related analysis, providing heuristic criteria for terminating the contention period and showing that very high throughputs can be achieved, even for a low number for contending users. The demonstrated results potentially have more direct practical implications compared to the approaches for coded random access that lead to high throughputs only asymptotically.Comment: Revised version submitted to IEEE Transactions on Communication

Check-hybrid GLDPC Codes: Systematic Elimination of Trapping Sets and Guaranteed Error Correction Capability

In this paper, we propose a new approach to construct a class of check-hybrid generalized low-density parity-check (CH-GLDPC) codes which are free of small trapping sets. The approach is based on converting some selected check nodes involving a trapping set into super checks corresponding to a 2-error correcting component code. Specifically, we follow two main purposes to construct the check-hybrid codes; first, based on the knowledge of the trapping sets of the global LDPC code, single parity checks are replaced by super checks to disable the trapping sets. We show that by converting specified single check nodes, denoted as critical checks, to super checks in a trapping set, the parallel bit flipping (PBF) decoder corrects the errors on a trapping set and hence eliminates the trapping set. The second purpose is to minimize the rate loss caused by replacing the super checks through finding the minimum number of such critical checks. We also present an algorithm to find critical checks in a trapping set of column-weight 3 LDPC code and then provide upper bounds on the minimum number of such critical checks such that the decoder corrects all error patterns on elementary trapping sets. Moreover, we provide a fixed set for a class of constructed check-hybrid codes. The guaranteed error correction capability of the CH-GLDPC codes is also studied. We show that a CH-GLDPC code in which each variable node is connected to 2 super checks corresponding to a 2-error correcting component code corrects up to 5 errors. The results are also extended to column-weight 4 LDPC codes. Finally, we investigate the eliminating of trapping sets of a column-weight 3 LDPC code using the Gallager B decoding algorithm and generalize the results obtained for the PBF for the Gallager B decoding algorithm

Doubly-Generalized LDPC Codes: Stability Bound over the BEC

The iterative decoding threshold of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the binary erasure channel (BEC) fulfills an upper bound depending only on the variable and check nodes with minimum distance 2. This bound is a consequence of the stability condition, and is here referred to as stability bound. In this paper, a stability bound over the BEC is developed for doubly-generalized LDPC codes, where the variable and the check nodes can be generic linear block codes, assuming maximum a posteriori erasure correction at each node. It is proved that in this generalized context as well the bound depends only on the variable and check component codes with minimum distance 2. A condition is also developed, namely the derivative matching condition, under which the bound is achieved with equality.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Trans. on Inform. Theor

Coded Slotted ALOHA: A Graph-Based Method for Uncoordinated Multiple Access

In this paper, a random access scheme is introduced which relies on the combination of packet erasure correcting codes and successive interference cancellation (SIC). The scheme is named coded slotted ALOHA. A bipartite graph representation of the SIC process, resembling iterative decoding of generalized low-density parity-check codes over the erasure channel, is exploited to optimize the selection probabilities of the component erasure correcting codes via density evolution analysis. The capacity (in packets per slot) of the scheme is then analyzed in the context of the collision channel without feedback. Moreover, a capacity bound is developed and component code distributions tightly approaching the bound are derived.Comment: The final version to appear in IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory. 18 pages, 10 figure