9 research outputs found
Decomposition Methods for Large Scale LP Decoding
When binary linear error-correcting codes are used over symmetric channels, a
relaxed version of the maximum likelihood decoding problem can be stated as a
linear program (LP). This LP decoder can be used to decode error-correcting
codes at bit-error-rates comparable to state-of-the-art belief propagation (BP)
decoders, but with significantly stronger theoretical guarantees. However, LP
decoding when implemented with standard LP solvers does not easily scale to the
block lengths of modern error correcting codes. In this paper we draw on
decomposition methods from optimization theory, specifically the Alternating
Directions Method of Multipliers (ADMM), to develop efficient distributed
algorithms for LP decoding.
The key enabling technical result is a "two-slice" characterization of the
geometry of the parity polytope, which is the convex hull of all codewords of a
single parity check code. This new characterization simplifies the
representation of points in the polytope. Using this simplification, we develop
an efficient algorithm for Euclidean norm projection onto the parity polytope.
This projection is required by ADMM and allows us to use LP decoding, with all
its theoretical guarantees, to decode large-scale error correcting codes
efficiently.
We present numerical results for LDPC codes of lengths more than 1000. The
waterfall region of LP decoding is seen to initiate at a slightly higher
signal-to-noise ratio than for sum-product BP, however an error floor is not
observed for LP decoding, which is not the case for BP. Our implementation of
LP decoding using ADMM executes as fast as our baseline sum-product BP decoder,
is fully parallelizable, and can be seen to implement a type of message-passing
with a particularly simple schedule.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures. An early version of this work appeared at the
49th Annual Allerton Conference, September 2011. This version to appear in
IEEE Transactions on Information Theor
Introduction to Mathematical Programming-Based Error-Correction Decoding
Decoding error-correctiong codes by methods of mathematical optimization,
most importantly linear programming, has become an important alternative
approach to both algebraic and iterative decoding methods since its
introduction by Feldman et al. At first celebrated mainly for its analytical
powers, real-world applications of LP decoding are now within reach thanks to
most recent research. This document gives an elaborate introduction into both
mathematical optimization and coding theory as well as a review of the
contributions by which these two areas have found common ground.Comment: LaTeX sources maintained here: https://github.com/supermihi/lpdintr
On the Convergence of Alternating Direction Lagrangian Methods for Nonconvex Structured Optimization Problems
Nonconvex and structured optimization problems arise in many engineering
applications that demand scalable and distributed solution methods. The study
of the convergence properties of these methods is in general difficult due to
the nonconvexity of the problem. In this paper, two distributed solution
methods that combine the fast convergence properties of augmented
Lagrangian-based methods with the separability properties of alternating
optimization are investigated. The first method is adapted from the classic
quadratic penalty function method and is called the Alternating Direction
Penalty Method (ADPM). Unlike the original quadratic penalty function method,
in which single-step optimizations are adopted, ADPM uses an alternating
optimization, which in turn makes it scalable. The second method is the
well-known Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). It is shown that
ADPM for nonconvex problems asymptotically converges to a primal feasible point
under mild conditions and an additional condition ensuring that it
asymptotically reaches the standard first order necessary conditions for local
optimality are introduced. In the case of the ADMM, novel sufficient conditions
under which the algorithm asymptotically reaches the standard first order
necessary conditions are established. Based on this, complete convergence of
ADMM for a class of low dimensional problems are characterized. Finally, the
results are illustrated by applying ADPM and ADMM to a nonconvex localization
problem in wireless sensor networks.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure