Early-termination techniques for polar list decoders

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10615825-B2
Application number	US-201815969724-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 2, 2018
Priority date	May 5, 2017
Publication date	Apr 7, 2020
Grant date	Apr 7, 2020

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. In a new radio (NR) system, a wireless device may identify a candidate codeword for a channel employing polar coding. The wireless device may perform a decoding operation on the candidate codeword to determine candidate decoding paths corresponding to encoded information bits. The decoding operation may include multiple decoding path candidates, each of which is associated with a path metric. The wireless device may evaluate a spread metric to determine if a decoding hypothesis is incorrect or if the received codeword is too corrupted for decoding. The spread metric may be based on the path metrics of the decoding paths or soft metrics of the decoding paths determined based on a subset of bit channels of the polar code. The wireless device may normalize the spread metric to compensate for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) variation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:
receiving a candidate codeword encoded using a polar code, the candidate codeword generated based at least in part on a plurality of information bits;
performing a decoding process on the candidate codeword, the decoding process comprising, for each bit channel of at least a first subset of bit channels of the polar code:
determining path metrics for each of a plurality of decoding paths;
determining a spread metric based at least in part on a first path metric corresponding to a first decoding path of the plurality of decoding paths and a second path metric corresponding to a second decoding path of the plurality of decoding paths; and

terminating the decoding process based at least in part on a comparison of the spread metric to a spread metric threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the decoding process is terminated prior to completion of a list decoding process for the each bit channel of the first subset of bit channels.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the decoding process is terminated prior to completion of an error checking procedure on the plurality of decoding paths.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the decoding process is terminated following completion of both a list decoding process for the each bit channel of the first subset of bit channels and an error checking procedure on the plurality of decoding paths.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first path metric corresponds to a maximum path metric or a minimum path metric of a set of path metrics associated with the plurality of decoding paths; and
the second path metric corresponds to the other of the maximum path metric or the minimum path metric of the set of path metrics.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least the first subset of bit channels of the polar code comprise bit channels subsequent to at least one bit channel corresponding to at least one of the plurality of information bits.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the path metrics for the plurality of decoding paths are based on bit metrics for the each bit channel for the plurality of decoding paths and for a second subset of bit channels of the polar code preceding the each bit channel for the plurality of decoding paths.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
selecting, according to a decoding order, the second subset of bit channels of the polar code preceding the each bit channel based at least in part on at least one of generator weights associated with bit channels of the polar code, reliability metrics associated with the bit channels of the polar code, or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the second subset of bit channels of the polar code preceding the each bit channel comprises at least one information bit channel associated with one of the plurality of information bits and at least one frozen bit channel.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the spread metric is determined based at least in part on a function of a maximum path metric of a set of path metrics associated with the plurality of decoding paths, a minimum path metric of the set of path metrics or an average path metric of the set of path metrics.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the spread metric is determined based at least in part on a standard deviation of a set of path metrics associated with the plurality of decoding paths, a variance of the set of path metrics, or any combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the spread metric comprises:
comparing the first path metric to the second path metric and normalizing the comparison with respect to one of the first path metric or the second path metric.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the decoding process is terminated based at least in part on the spread metric being below the spread metric threshold.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the spread metric threshold is selected based at least in part on one or both of an early-termination probability associated with the candidate codeword and an error-correction performance associated with the candidate codeword.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the candidate codeword is received via a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

16. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:
means for receiving a candidate codeword encoded using a polar code, the candidate codeword generated based at least in part on a plurality of information bits;
means for performing a decoding process on the candidate codeword, the means for performing the decoding process comprising, for each bit channel of at least a first subset of bit channels of the polar code:
means for determining path metrics for each of a plurality of decoding paths;
means for determining a spread metric based at least in part on a first path metric corresponding to a first decoding path of the plurality of decoding paths and a second path metric corresponding to a second decoding path of the plurality of decoding paths; and

means for terminating the decoding process based at least in part on a comparison of the spread metric to a spread metric threshold.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:
the decoding process is terminated prior to completion of a list decoding process for the each bit channel of the first subset of bit channels.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:
the decoding process is terminated prior to completion of an error checking procedure on the plurality of decoding paths.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:
the decoding process is terminated following completion of both a list decoding process for the each bit channel of the first subset of bit channels and an error checking procedure on the plurality of decoding paths.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:
the first path metric corresponds to a maximum path metric or a minimum path metric of a set of path metrics associated with the plurality of decoding paths; and
the second path metric corresponds to the other of the maximum path metric or the minimum path metric of the set of path metrics.

21. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:
the at least the first subset of bit channels of the polar code comprise bit channels subsequent to at least one bit channel corresponding to at least one of the plurality of information bits.

22. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:
the path metrics for the plurality of decoding paths are based on bit metrics for the each bit channel for the plurality of decoding paths and for a second subset of bit channels of the polar code preceding the each bit channel for the plurality of decoding paths.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising:
means for selecting, according to a decoding order, the second subset of bit channels of the polar code preceding the each bit channel based at least in part on at least one of generator weights associated with bit channels of the polar code, reliability metrics associated with the bit channels of the polar code, or a combination thereof.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein:
the second subset of bit channels of the polar code preceding the each bit channel comprises at least one information bit channel associated with one of the plurality of information bits and at least one frozen bit channel.

25. The apparatus of claim 16 , w

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Sarkis Gabi
• Jiang Jing
• Lin Jamie Menjay
• Yang Yang

Classifications

• H04W72/0466

  the resource being a scrambling code · CPC title

• H03M13/3753 Primary

  using iteration stopping criteria · CPC title

• H04L1/0045

  Arrangements at the receiver end · CPC title

• H03M13/3738

  with judging correct decoding · CPC title

• H04L1/0053

  specially adapted for power saving · CPC title