Daniel J. Costello

LDPC block and convolutional codes based on circulant matrices

A class of algebraically structured quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and their convolutional counterparts is presented. The QC codes are described by sparse parity-check matrices comprised of blocks of circulant matrices. The sparse parity-check representation allows for practical graph-based iterative message-passing decoding. Based on the algebraic structure, bounds on the girth and minimum distance of the codes are found, and several possible encoding techniques are described. The performance of the QC LDPC block codes compares favorably with that of randomly constructed LDPC codes for short to moderate block lengths. The performance of the LDPC convolutional codes is superior to that of the QC codes on which they are based; this performance is the limiting performance obtained by increasing the circulant size of the base QC code. Finally, a continuous decoding procedure for the LDPC convolutional codes is described.

Applications of error-control coding

An overview of the many practical applications of channel coding theory in the past 50 years is presented. The following application areas are included: deep space communication, satellite communication, data transmission, data storage, mobile communication, file transfer, and digital audio/video transmission. Examples, both historical and current, are given that typify the different approaches used in each application area. Although no attempt is made to be comprehensive in the coverage, the examples chosen clearly illustrate the richness, variety, and importance of error-control coding methods in modern digital applications.

ARQ Schemes for Data Transmission in Mobile Radio Systems

An important problem in land mobile radio communications is how to provide reliable data communications to the largest number of users. To explore this problem, several existing ARQ protocols are examined which have application to the land mobile radio channel, as well as some new protocol combinations. All protocols are analyzed for several key system performance measures which are verified by experimental means for static as well as fading channels. Finally, a conclusion is reached regarding a new protocol combination which is found to offer significant advantages over all other protocols explored.

New deterministic interleaver designs for turbo codes

It is well known that an interleaver with random properties, quite often generated by pseudo-random algorithms, is one of the essential building blocks of turbo codes. However, randomly generated interleavers have two major drawbacks: lack of an adequate analysis that guarantees their performance and lack of a compact representation that leads to a simple implementation. We present several new classes of deterministic interleavers of length N, with construction complexity O(N), that permute a sequence of bits with nearly the same statistical distribution as a random interleaver and perform as well as or better than the average of a set of random interleavers. The new classes of deterministic interleavers have a very simple representation based on quadratic congruences and hence have a structure that allows the possibility of analysis as well as a straightforward implementation. Using the new interleavers, a turbo code of length 16384 that is only 0.7 dB away from capacy at a bit-error rate (BER) of 10/sup -5/ is constructed. We also generalize the theory of previously known deterministic interleavers that are based on block interleavers, and we apply this theory to the construction of a nonrandom turbo code of length 16384 with a very regular structure whose performance is only 1.1 dB away from capacity at a BER of 10/sup -5/.

Deriving Good LDPC Convolutional Codes from LDPC Block Codes

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) convolutional codes are capable of achieving excellent performance with low encoding and decoding complexity. In this paper, we discuss several graph-cover-based methods for deriving families of time-invariant and time-varying LDPC convolutional codes from LDPC block codes and show how earlier proposed LDPC convolutional code constructions can be presented within this framework. Some of the constructed convolutional codes significantly outperform the underlying LDPC block codes. We investigate some possible reasons for this “convolutional gain,” and we also discuss the-mostly moderate-decoder cost increase that is incurred by going from LDPC block to LDPC convolutional codes.

Hybrid ARQ error control using sequential decoding

An important feature of ARQ sequential decoding is that a very low undetected error probability can be achieved without increasing significantly the complexity of decoding. Several ARQ sequential decoding algorithms based on the stack algorithm are considered. Analysis is done for a memoryless channel with noiseless feedback, and the emphasis is on evaluating the undetected error probability and the maximum throughput attainable with each algorithm. A time-out algorithm is analyzed and the parameters optimizing the performance of this algorithm are found. A new algorithm called the slope control algorithm, capable of achieving a better throughput than the time-out algorithm, is proposed. The algorithm is analyzed using random coding arguments, and the parameters maximizing the throughput for various conditions are found. All theoretical results are verified by computer simulation for a binary symmetric channel.

On the frame-error rate of concatenated turbo codes

Turbo codes with long frame lengths are usually constructed using a randomly chosen interleaver. Statistically, this guarantees excellent bit-error rate (BER) performance but also generates a certain number of low weight codewords, resulting in the appearance of an error floor in the BER curve. Several methods, including using an outer code, have been proposed to improve the error floor region of the BER curve. We study the effect of an outer BCH code on the frame-error rate (FER) of turbo codes. We show that additional coding gain is possible not only in the error floor region but also in the waterfall region. Also, the outer code improves the iterative APP decoder by providing a stopping criterion and alleviating convergence problems. With this method, we obtain codes whose performance is within 0.6 dB of the sphere packing bound at an FER of 10/sup -6/.

Turbo codes for image transmission-a joint channel and source decoding approach

This paper studies an application of turbo codes to compressed image/video transmission and presents an approach to improving error control performance through joint channel and source decoding (JCSD). The proposed approach to JCSD includes error-free source information feedback, error-detected source information feedback, and the use of channel soft values (CSV) for source signal postprocessing. These feedback schemes are based on a modification of the extrinsic information passed between the constituent maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) decoders in a turbo decoder. The modification is made according to the source information obtained from the source signal processor. The CSVs are considered as reliability information on the hard decisions and are further used for error recovery in the reconstructed signals. Applications of this joint decoding technique to different visual source coding schemes, such as spatial vector quantization, JPEG coding, and MPEG coding, are examined. Experimental results show that up to 0.6 dB of channel SNR reduction can be achieved by the joint decoder without increasing computational cost for various channel coding rates.

Asymptotically optimal low-complexity sequential lossless coding for piecewise-stationary memoryless sources .I. The regular case

The lower bound on the redundancy for lossless universal coding of regular memoryless sources with a bounded number of abrupt changes in the statistics is shown to be asymptotically achievable using a fixed per-letter computational complexity sequential compression scheme with fixed storage complexity. The scheme which outperforms any other known fixed-complexity scheme when regularity conditions hold is presented, and its redundancy is upper-bounded. Although the upper bounds are merely asymptotic, simulation results show that even for relatively short sequences, the redundancy obtained by asymptotically optimal schemes of higher complexity can still be achieved with fixed per-letter complexity. Furthermore, in practice, a fixed-complexity scheme based on the proposed scheme can in most cases achieve optimal redundancy even when the regularity conditions do not hold.

Rotationally invariant nonlinear trellis codes for two-dimensional modulation

A general parity-check equation is presented that defines rotationally invariant trellis codes of rate k/(k+1) for two-dimensional signal sets. This parity-check equation is used to find rate k/(k+1) codes for 4PSK, 8PSK, 16PSK, and QAM signal sets by systematic code searches. The MPSK codes exhibit smaller free Euclidean distances than nonrotationally invariant linear codes with the same number of states. However, since the nonlinear codes have a smaller number of nearest neighbors, their performance at moderate signal to noise ratios is close to that of the best linear codes. The rotationally invariant QAM codes with 8, 32, 64, and 256 states achieve the same free Euclidean distance as the best linear codes. Transparency of user information under phase rotations is accomplished either by conventional differential encoding and decoding, or by integrating this function directly into the code trellis. >