Design and Analysis of Successive Decoding with Finite Levels for the Markov Channel

TL;DR

This paper introduces a practical successive decoding scheme with finite levels for finite-state Markov channels, employing interleaver design and iterative decoding to approach channel capacity without prior state information.

Contribution

It presents a novel finite-level successive decoding method with optimized interleaver design for Markov channels lacking a priori state info, improving capacity approximation.

Findings

Approaches the i.u.d. input capacity with few decoding levels

Effective interleaver design enhances decoding performance

Combines irregular LDPC codes with the proposed scheme successfully

Abstract

This paper proposes a practical successive decoding scheme with finite levels for the finite-state Markov channels where there is no a priori state information at the transmitter or the receiver. The design employs either a random interleaver or a deterministic interleaver with an irregular pattern and an optional iterative estimation and decoding procedure within each level. The interleaver design criteria may be the achievable rate or the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart, depending on the receiver type. For random interleavers, the optimization problem is solved efficiently using a pilot-utility function, while for deterministic interleavers, a good construction is given using empirical rules. Simulation results demonstrate that the new successive decoding scheme combined with irregular low-density parity-check codes can approach the identically and uniformly distributed (i.u.d.) input capacity on the Markov-fading channel using only a few levels.