High Performance Low Latency Parallel Successive Cancelation Decoder Structures for Polar Codes

Abstract

Polar codes are decoded using successive cancellation (SC) algorithm where likelihood ratios (LRs) for data bits are calculated in a sequential manner, and decisions are made using the calculated LRs. During the decoding of an information bit, the decision results for the predecessor bits are used, and a wrongly decided predecessor bit has negative effect on the accurate calculation of the LR for the information bit being decoded. In SC algorithm, when LR=1, the information bit is decoded as u ̂_i=0, however, such a decision has 50% of chance of being correct. In this paper, we propose improved polar decoders utilizing a number of SC decoders. We consider the case of LR=1, and propose polar decoder structures for the more accurate calculation of the LRs of the successor bits