Reconfigurable rateless codes

We propose novel reconfigurable rateless codes, that are capable of not only varying the block length but also adaptively modify their encoding strategy by incrementally adjusting their degree distribution according to the prevalent channel conditions without the availability of the channel state information at the transmitter. In particular, we characterize a reconfigurable ratelesscode designed for the transmission of 9,500 information bits that achieves a performance, which is approximately 1 dB away from the discrete-input continuous-output memoryless channel’s (DCMC) capacity over a diverse range of channel signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios

Reconfigurable rateless codes

We propose novel reconfigurable rateless codes, that are capable of not only varying the block length but also adaptively modify their encoding strategy by incrementally adjusting their degree distribution according to the prevalent channel conditions without the availability of the channel state information at the transmitter. In particular, we characterize a reconfigurable ratelesscode designed for the transmission of 9,500 information bits that achieves a performance, which is approximately 1 dB away from the discrete-input continuous-output memoryless channel’s (DCMC) capacity over a diverse range of channel signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios

Probabilistic Rateless Multiple Access for Machine-to-Machine Communication

Future machine to machine (M2M) communications need to support a massive number of devices communicating with each other with little or no human intervention. Random access techniques were originally proposed to enable M2M multiple access, but suffer from severe congestion and access delay in an M2M system with a large number of devices. In this paper, we propose a novel multiple access scheme for M2M communications based on the capacity-approaching analog fountain code to efficiently minimize the access delay and satisfy the delay requirement for each device. This is achieved by allowing M2M devices to transmit at the same time on the same channel in an optimal probabilistic manner based on their individual delay requirements. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves a near optimal rate performance and at the same time guarantees the delay requirements of the devices. We further propose a simple random access strategy and characterized the required overhead. Simulation results show the proposed approach significantly outperforms the existing random access schemes currently used in long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) standard in terms of the access delay.Comment: Accepted to Publish in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

Isn't Hybrid ARQ Sufficient?

In practical systems, reliable communication is often accomplished by coding at different network layers. We question the necessity of this approach and examine when it can be beneficial. Through conceptually simple probabilistic models (based on coin tossing), we argue that multicast scenarios and protocol restrictions may make concatenated multi-layer coding preferable to physical layer coding alone, which is mostly not the case in point-to-point communications.Comment: Paper presented at Allerton Conference 201

Near-capacity fixed-rate and rateless channel code constructions

Fixed-rate and rateless channel code constructions are designed for satisfying conflicting design tradeoffs, leading to codes that benefit from practical implementations, whilst offering a good bit error ratio (BER) and block error ratio (BLER) performance. More explicitly, two novel low-density parity-check code (LDPC) constructions are proposed; the first construction constitutes a family of quasi-cyclic protograph LDPC codes, which has a Vandermonde-like parity-check matrix (PCM). The second construction constitutes a specific class of protograph LDPC codes, which are termed as multilevel structured (MLS) LDPC codes. These codes possess a PCM construction that allows the coexistence of both pseudo-randomness as well as a structure requiring a reduced memory. More importantly, it is also demonstrated that these benefits accrue without any compromise in the attainable BER/BLER performance. We also present the novel concept of separating multiple users by means of user-specific channel codes, which is referred to as channel code division multiple access (CCDMA), and provide an example based on MLS LDPC codes. In particular, we circumvent the difficulty of having potentially high memory requirements, while ensuring that each user’s bits in the CCDMA system are equally protected. With regards to rateless channel coding, we propose a novel family of codes, which we refer to as reconfigurable rateless codes, that are capable of not only varying their code-rate but also to adaptively modify their encoding/decoding strategy according to the near-instantaneous channel conditions. We demonstrate that the proposed reconfigurable rateless codes are capable of shaping their own degree distribution according to the nearinstantaneous requirements imposed by the channel, but without any explicit channel knowledge at the transmitter. Additionally, a generalised transmit preprocessing aided closed-loop downlink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is presented, in which both the channel coding components as well as the linear transmit precoder exploit the knowledge of the channel state information (CSI). More explicitly, we embed a rateless code in a MIMO transmit preprocessing scheme, in order to attain near-capacity performance across a wide range of channel signal-to-ratios (SNRs), rather than only at a specific SNR. The performance of our scheme is further enhanced with the aid of a technique, referred to as pilot symbol assisted rateless (PSAR) coding, whereby a predetermined fraction of pilot bits is appropriately interspersed with the original information bits at the channel coding stage, instead of multiplexing pilots at the modulation stage, as in classic pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM). We subsequently demonstrate that the PSAR code-aided transmit preprocessing scheme succeeds in gleaning more information from the inserted pilots than the classic PSAM technique, because the pilot bits are not only useful for sounding the channel at the receiver but also beneficial for significantly reducing the computational complexity of the rateless channel decoder