Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi

Design of capacity-approaching irregular low-density parity-check codes

We design low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that perform at rates extremely close to the Shannon capacity. The codes are built from highly irregular bipartite graphs with carefully chosen degree patterns on both sides. Our theoretical analysis of the codes is based on the work of Richardson and Urbanke (see ibid., vol.47, no.2, p.599-618, 2000). Assuming that the underlying communication channel is symmetric, we prove that the probability densities at the message nodes of the graph possess a certain symmetry. Using this symmetry property we then show that, under the assumption of no cycles, the message densities always converge as the number of iterations tends to infinity. Furthermore, we prove a stability condition which implies an upper bound on the fraction of errors that a belief-propagation decoder can correct when applied to a code induced from a bipartite graph with a given degree distribution. Our codes are found by optimizing the degree structure of the underlying graphs. We develop several strategies to perform this optimization. We also present some simulation results for the codes found which show that the performance of the codes is very close to the asymptotic theoretical bounds.

Efficient erasure correcting codes

We introduce a simple erasure recovery algorithm for codes derived from cascades of sparse bipartite graphs and analyze the algorithm by analyzing a corresponding discrete-time random process. As a result, we obtain a simple criterion involving the fractions of nodes of different degrees on both sides of the graph which is necessary and sufficient for the decoding process to finish successfully with high probability. By carefully designing these graphs we can construct for any given rate R and any given real number /spl epsiv/ a family of linear codes of rate R which can be encoded in time proportional to ln(1//spl epsiv/) times their block length n. Furthermore, a codeword can be recovered with high probability from a portion of its entries of length (1+/spl epsiv/)Rn or more. The recovery algorithm also runs in time proportional to n ln(1//spl epsiv/). Our algorithms have been implemented and work well in practice; various implementation issues are discussed.

Improved low-density parity-check codes using irregular graphs

We construct new families of error-correcting codes based on Gallagers (1973) low-density parity-check codes. We improve on Gallagers results by introducing irregular parity-check matrices and a new rigorous analysis of hard-decision decoding of these codes. We also provide efficient methods for finding good irregular structures for such decoding algorithms. Our rigorous analysis based on martingales, our methodology for constructing good irregular codes, and the demonstration that irregular structure improves performance constitute key points of our contribution. We also consider irregular codes under belief propagation. We report the results of experiments testing the efficacy of irregular codes on both binary-symmetric and Gaussian channels. For example, using belief propagation, for rate 1/4 codes on 16000 bits over a binary-symmetric channel, previous low-density parity-check codes can correct up to approximately 16% errors, while our codes correct over 17%. In some cases our results come very close to reported results for turbo codes, suggesting that variations of irregular low density parity-check codes may be able to match or beat turbo code performance.

A remark on matrix rigidity

Abstract The rigidity of a matrix is defined to be the number of entries in the matrix that have to be changed in order to reduce its rank below a certain value. Using a simple combinatorial lemma, we show that one must alter at least c( n 2 r ) log( n r ) entries of an (n × n)-Cauchy matrix to reduce its rank below r, for some constant c. We apply our combinatorial lemma to matrices obtained from asymptotically good algebraic geometric codes to obtain a similar result for r satisfying 2n (√q − 1) n 4 .

Fast and precise Fourier transforms

Many applications of fast Fourier transforms (FFTs), such as computer tomography, geophysical signal processing, high-resolution imaging radars, and prediction filters, require high-precision output. An error analysis reveals that the usual method of fixed-point computation of FFTs of vectors of length 2/sup l/ leads to an average loss of l/2 bits of precision. This phenomenon, often referred to as computational noise, causes major problems for arithmetic units with limited precision which are often used for real-time applications. Several researchers have noted that calculation of FFTs with algebraic integers avoids computational noise entirely. We combine a new algorithm for approximating complex numbers by cyclotomic integers with Chinese remaindering strategies to give an efficient algorithm to compute b-bit precision FFTs of length L. More precisely, we approximate complex numbers by cyclotomic integers in Z[e(2/spl pi/i/2/sup n/)] whose coefficients, when expressed as polynomials in e(2/spl pi/i/2/sup n/), are bounded in absolute value by some integer M. For fixed n our algorithm runs in time O(log(M)), and produces an approximation with worst case error of O(1/M(2/sup n-2/-1)). We prove that this algorithm has optimal worst case error by proving a corresponding lower bound on the worst case error of any approximation algorithm for this task. The main tool for designing the algorithms is the use of the cyclotomic units, a subgroup of finite index in the unit group of the cyclotomic field. First implementations of our algorithms indicate that they are fast enough to be used for the design of low-cost high-speed/high-precision FFT chips.