High Performance Decoder Architectures for Error Correction Codes

Due to the rapid development of the information industry, modern communication and storage systems require much higher data rates and reliability to server various demanding applications. However, these systems suffer from noises from the practical channels. Various error correction codes (ECCs), such as Reed-Solomon (RS) codes, convolutional codes, turbo codes, Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes and so on, have been adopted in lots of current standards. With the increasing data rate, the research of more advanced ECCs and the corresponding efficient decoders will never stop.Binary LDPC codes have been adopted in lots of modern communication and storage applications due their superior error performance and efficient hardware decoder implementations. Non-binary LDPC (NB-LDPC) codes are an important extension of traditional binary LDPC codes. Compared with its binary counterpart, NB-LDPC codes show better error performance under short to moderate block lengths and higher order modulations. Moreover, NB-LDPC codes have lower error floor than binary LDPC codes. In spite of the excellent error performance, it is hard for current communication and storage systems to adopt NB-LDPC codes due to complex decoding algorithms and decoder architectures. In terms of hardware implementation, current NB-LDPC decoders need much larger area and achieve much lower data throughput.Besides the recently proposed NB-LDPC codes, polar codes, discovered by Ar{\i}kan, appear as a very promising candidate for future communication and storage systems. Polar codes are considered as a major breakthrough in recent coding theory society. Polar codes are proved to be capacity achieving codes over binary input symmetric memoryless channels. Besides, polar codes can be decoded by the successive cancelation (SC) algorithm with of complexity of $\mathcal{O}(N\log_2 N)$, where $N$ is the block length. The main sticking point of polar codes to date is that their error performance under short to moderate block lengths is inferior compared with LDPC codes or turbo codes. The list decoding technique can be used to improve the error performance of SC algorithms at the cost higher computational and memory complexities. Besides, the hardware implementation of current SC based decoders suffer from long decoding latency which is unsuitable for modern high speed communications.ECCs also find their applications in improving the reliability of network coding. Random linear network coding is an efficient technique for disseminating information in networks, but it is highly susceptible to errors. K\ {o}tter-Kschischang (KK) codes and Mahdavifar-Vardy (MV) codes are two important families of subspace codes that provide error control in noncoherent random linear network coding. List decoding has been used to decode MV codes beyond half distance. Existing hardware implementations of the rank metric decoder for KK codes suffer from limited throughput, long latency and high area complexity. The interpolation-based list decoding algorithm for MV codes still has high computational complexity, and its feasibility for hardware implementations has not been investigated.In this exam, we present efficient decoding algorithms and hardware decoder architectures for NB-LDPC codes, polar codes, KK and MV codes. For NB-LDPC codes, an efficient shuffled decoder architecture is presented to reduce the number of average iterations and improve the throughput. Besides, a fully parallel decoder architecture for NB-LDPC codes with short or moderate block lengths is also presented. Our fully parallel decoder architecture achieves much higher throughput and area efficiency compared with the state-of-art NB-LDPC decoders. For polar codes, a memory efficient list decoder architecture is first presented. Based on our reduced latency list decoding algorithm for polar codes, a high throughput list decoder architecture is also presented. At last, we present efficient decoder architectures for both KK and MV codes

Residue number system coded differential space-time-frequency coding.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.The rapidly growing need for fast and reliable transmission over a wireless channel motivates the development of communication systems that can support high data rates at low complexity. Achieving reliable communication over a wireless channel is a challenging task largely due to the possibility of multipaths which may lead to intersymbol interference (ISI). Diversity techniques such as time, frequency and space are commonly used to combat multipath fading. Classical diversity techniques use repetition codes such that the information is replicated and transmitted over several channels that are sufficiently spaced. In fading channels, the performance across some diversity branches may be excessively attenuated, making throughput unacceptably small. In principle, more powerful coding techniques can be used to maximize the diversity order. This leads to bandwidth expansion or increased transmission power to accommodate the redundant bits. Hence there is need for coding and modulation schemes that provide low error rate performance in a bandwidth efficient manner. If diversity schemes are combined, more independent dimensions become available for information transfer. The first part of the thesis addresses achieving temporal diversity through employing error correcting coding schemes combined with interleaving. Noncoherent differential modulation does not require explicit knowledge or estimate of the channel, instead the information is encoded in the transitions. This lends itself to the possibility of turbo-like serial concatenation of a standard outer channel encoder with an inner modulation code amenable to noncoherent detection through an interleaver. An iterative approach to joint decoding and demodulation can be realized by exchanging soft information between the decoder and the demodulator. This has been shown to be effective and hold hope for approaching capacity over fast fading channels. However most of these schemes employ low rate convolutional codes as their channel encoders. In this thesis we propose the use of redundant residue number system codes. It is shown that these codes can achieve comparable performance at minimal complexity and high data rates. The second part deals with the possibility of combining several diversity dimensions into a reliable bandwidth efficient communication scheme. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has been used to combat multipaths. Combining OFDM with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems to form MIMO-OFDM not only reduces the complexity by eliminating the need for equalization but also provides large channel capacity and a high diversity potential. Space-time coded OFDM was proposed and shown to be an effective transmission technique for MIMO systems. Spacefrequency coding and space-time-frequency coding were developed out of the need to exploit the frequency diversity due to multipaths. Most of the proposed schemes in the literature maximize frequency diversity predominantly from the frequency-selective nature of the fading channel. In this thesis we propose the use of residue number system as the frequency encoder. It is shown that the proposed space-time-frequency coding scheme can maximize the diversity gains over space, time and frequency domains. The gain of MIMO-OFDM comes at the expense of increased receiver complexity. Furthermore, most of the proposed space-time-frequency coding schemes assume frequency selective block fading channels which is not an ideal assumption for broadband wireless communications. Relatively high mobility in broadband wireless communications systems may result in high Doppler frequency, hence time-selective (rapid) fading. Rapidly changing channel characteristics impedes the channel estimation process and may result in incorrect estimates of the channel coefficients. The last part of the thesis deals with the performance of differential space-time-frequency coding in fast fading channels

Cooperative strategies design based on the diversity and multiplexing tradeoff

This thesis focuses on designing wireless cooperative communication strategies that are either optimal or near-optimal in terms of the tradeoff between diversity and multiplexing gains. Starting from classical cooperative broadcast, multiple-access and relay channels with unit degree of freedom, to more general cooperative interference channels with higher degrees of freedom, properties of different network topologies are studied and their unique characteristics together with several advanced interference management techniques are exploited to design cooperative transmission strategies in order to enhance data rate, reliability or both at the same time. Moreover, various algorithms are proposed to solve practical implementation issues and performance is analyzed through both theoretical verifications and simulations

Advanced wireless communications using large numbers of transmit antennas and receive nodes

The concept of deploying a large number of antennas at the base station, often called massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), has drawn considerable interest because of its potential ability to revolutionize current wireless communication systems. Most literature on massive MIMO systems assumes time division duplexing (TDD), although frequency division duplexing (FDD) dominates current cellular systems. Due to the large number of transmit antennas at the base station, currently standardized approaches would require a large percentage of the precious downlink and uplink resources in FDD massive MIMO be used for training signal transmissions and channel state information (CSI) feedback. First, we propose practical open-loop and closed-loop training frameworks to reduce the overhead of the downlink training phase. We then discuss efficient CSI quantization techniques using a trellis search. The proposed CSI quantization techniques can be implemented with a complexity that only grows linearly with the number of transmit antennas while the performance is close to the optimal case. We also analyze distributed reception using a large number of geographically separated nodes, a scenario that may become popular with the emergence of the Internet of Things. For distributed reception, we first propose coded distributed diversity to minimize the symbol error probability at the fusion center when the transmitter is equipped with a single antenna. Then we develop efficient receivers at the fusion center using minimal processing overhead at the receive nodes when the transmitter with multiple transmit antennas sends multiple symbols simultaneously using spatial multiplexing

Bit Error Combating Network Coding Techniques

The aim of this project is to propose a system that with less complexity than MIXIT could give better performance than Distributed Product Codes in media streaming over wireless networks

Quantum information processing approaches in classical systems

The engineering problem of building scalable quantum computers has prompted the development of a rich theory modeling the evolution of quantum systems as well as techniques to preserve quantum information in the presence of noise. Such techniques offer systems-level approaches to the problem of robustly encoding and preserving information and, as a result, see applicability in a wide variety of architectures for computing systems. In this thesis, we visit the mathematical underpinnings of quantum information and apply strategies inspired by quantum information processing to two non-quantum systems to demonstrate advantage. We first describe the construction of a quantum emulation device, an analog electronic system with the same mathematical structure as a gate-based quantum computer, and introduce novel time-domain information encoding methods to increase the computational capacity of the device. We confirm the sustained performance of the improved system by successfully transforming emulated states by randomly selected quantum gates. We then visit similarities between quantum information processing and signal processing in the noncoherent wireless communication setting, the latter being an environment characterized by a lack of instantaneous channel knowledge. We describe the theoretical underpinnings of the noncoherent communication environment from both an information theoretic and signal processing perspective. This leads us to propose a multi-antenna space-time code construction based on a family of quantum error correcting codes known as stabilizer codes. For this code, we derive the optimal decoder in Rayleigh and Ricean fading and benchmark the its performance against coherent and differential coding at comparable rates.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

This overview portrays the 40-year evolution of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) research. The amelioration of powerful multicarrier OFDM arrangements with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems has numerous benefits, which are detailed in this treatise. We continue by highlighting the limitations of conventional detection and channel estimation techniques designed for multiuser MIMO OFDM systems in the so-called rank-deficient scenarios, where the number of users supported or the number of transmit antennas employed exceeds the number of receiver antennas. This is often encountered in practice, unless we limit the number of users granted access in the base station’s or radio port’s coverage area. Following a historical perspective on the associated design problems and their state-of-the-art solutions, the second half of this treatise details a range of classic multiuser detectors (MUDs) designed for MIMO-OFDM systems and characterizes their achievable performance. A further section aims for identifying novel cutting-edge genetic algorithm (GA)-aided detector solutions, which have found numerous applications in wireless communications in recent years. In an effort to stimulate the cross pollination of ideas across the machine learning, optimization, signal processing, and wireless communications research communities, we will review the broadly applicable principles of various GA-assisted optimization techniques, which were recently proposed also for employment inmultiuser MIMO OFDM. In order to stimulate new research, we demonstrate that the family of GA-aided MUDs is capable of achieving a near-optimum performance at the cost of a significantly lower computational complexity than that imposed by their optimum maximum-likelihood (ML) MUD aided counterparts. The paper is concluded by outlining a range of future research options that may find their way into next-generation wireless systems

Towards an enhanced noncoherent massive MU-MIMO system

PhD ThesisMany multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink transmission schemes assume channel state information (CSI) is available at the receiver/transmitter. In practice, knowledge of CSI is often obtained by using pilot symbols transmitted periodically. However, for some systems, due to high mobility and the cost of channel training and estimation, CSI acquisition is not always feasible. The problem becomes even more difficult when many antennas are used in the system and the channel is changing very rapidly before training is completed. Moreover, as the number of transmit/receive antennas grows large, the number of pilot symbols, system overheads, latency, and power consumption will grow proportionately and thereby the system becomes increasingly complex. As an alternative, a noncoherent system may be used wherein the transmitter/receiver does not need any knowledge of the CSI to perform precoding or detection. This thesis focuses on the design of a noncoherent downlink transmission system to jointly improve the performance and achieve a simple low complexity transmission scheme in three MIMO system scenarios: low rate differential spacetime block coding (STBC) in a downlink multiuser (MU-MIMO) system; high rate differential algebraic STBC in a downlink MU-MIMO system; and differential downlink transmission in a massive MU-MIMO system. Three novel design methods for each of these systems are proposed and analysed thoroughly. For the MIMO system with a low rate noncoherent scheme, a differential STBC MU-MIMO system with a downlink transmission scheme is considered. Specifically, downlink precoding combined with differential modulation (DM) is used to shift the complexity from the receivers to the transmitter. The block diagonalization (BD) precoding scheme is used to cancel co-channel interference (CCI) in addition to exploiting its advantage of enhancing diversity. Since the BD scheme requires channel knowledge at the transmitter, the downlink spreading technique along with DM is also proposed, which does not require channel knowledge neither at the transmitter nor at the receivers. The orthogonal spreading (OS) scheme is employed to have similar principle as code division multiple access (CDMA) multiplexing scheme in order to eliminate the interference between users. As a STBC scheme, the Alamouti code is used that can be encoded/decoded using DM thereby eliminating the need for channel knowledge at the receiver. The proposed schemes yield low complexity transceivers while providing good performance. For the MIMO system with a high rate noncoherent scheme, a differential STBC MU-MIMO system that operates at a high data rate is considered. In particular, a full-rate full-diversity downlink algebraic transmission scheme combined with a differential STBC systems is proposed. To achieve this, perfect algebraic space time codes and Cayley differential (CD) transforms are employed. Since CSI is not needed at the differential receiver, differential schemes are ideal for multiuser systems to shift the complexity from the receivers to the transmitter, thus simplifying user equipment. Furthermore, OS matrices are employed at the transmitter to separate the data streams of different users and enable simple single user decoding. In the OS scheme, the transmitter does not require any knowledge of the CSI to separate the data streams of multiple users; this results in a system which does not need CSI at either end. With this system, to limit the number of possible codewords, a sphere decoder (SD) is used to decode the signals at the receiving end. The proposed scheme yields low complexity transceivers while providing full-rate full-diversity system with good performance. Lastly, a differential downlink transmission scheme is proposed for a massive MIMO system without explicit channel estimation. In particular, a downlink precoding technique combined with a differential encoding scheme is used to simplify the overall system complexity. A novel precoder is designed which, with a large number of transmit antennas, can effectively precancel the multiple access interference (MAI) for each user, thus enhancing the system performance. Maximising the worst case signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is adopted to optimise the precoder for the users in which full power space profile (PSP) knowledge is available to the base station (BS). Also, two suboptimal solutions based on the matched and the orthogonality approach of PSP are provided to separate the data streams of multiple users. The decision feedback differential detection (DFDD) technique is employed to further improve the performance. In summary, the proposed methods eliminate MAI, enhance system performance, and achieve a simple low complexity system. Moreover, transmission overheads are significantly reduced, the proposed methods avoid explicit channel estimation at both ends.King Fahad Security Collage at the Ministry of Interior - Saudi Arabia

Design guidelines for spatial modulation

A new class of low-complexity, yet energyefficient Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques, namely the family of Spatial Modulation (SM) aided MIMOs (SM-MIMO) has emerged. These systems are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions (i.e. the antenna indices) as an additional dimension invoked for transmitting information, apart from the traditional Amplitude and Phase Modulation (APM). SM is capable of efficiently operating in diverse MIMO configurations in the context of future communication systems. It constitutes a promising transmission candidate for large-scale MIMO design and for the indoor optical wireless communication whilst relying on a single-Radio Frequency (RF) chain. Moreover, SM may also be viewed as an entirely new hybrid modulation scheme, which is still in its infancy. This paper aims for providing a general survey of the SM design framework as well as of its intrinsic limits. In particular, we focus our attention on the associated transceiver design, on spatial constellation optimization, on link adaptation techniques, on distributed/ cooperative protocol design issues, and on their meritorious variants