Partial decoding has the potential to achieve a larger capacity region than
full decoding in two-way relay (TWR) channels. Existing partial decoding
realizations are however designed for Gaussian channels and with a static
physical layer network coding (PLNC). In this paper, we propose a new solution
for joint network coding and channel decoding at the relay, called pairwise
check decoding (PCD), for low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded TWR system over
block fading channels. The main idea is to form a check relationship table
(check-relation-tab) for the superimposed LDPC coded packet pair in the
multiple access (MA) phase in conjunction with an adaptive PLNC mapping in the
broadcast (BC) phase. Using PCD, we then present a partial decoding method,
two-stage closest-neighbor clustering with PCD (TS-CNC-PCD), with the aim of
minimizing the worst pairwise error probability. Moreover, we propose the
minimum correlation optimization (MCO) for selecting the better
check-relation-tabs. Simulation results confirm that the proposed TS-CNC-PCD
offers a sizable gain over the conventional XOR with belief propagation (BP) in
fading channels.Comment: to appear in IEEE Trans. on Communications, 201