LT Code Design for Inactivation Decoding

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple model for inactivation decoding of LT codes that accurately estimates decoding complexity and enables optimization of degree distributions to minimize inactivations needed.

Contribution

A novel, accurate model for inactivation decoding complexity of LT codes and a method for optimizing degree distributions to reduce inactivations.

Findings

Model accurately predicts decoding complexity.

Optimization reduces the number of inactivations.

Applicable to practical LT code designs.

Abstract

We present a simple model of inactivation decoding for LT codes which can be used to estimate the decoding complexity as a function of the LT code degree distribution. The model is shown to be accurate in variety of settings of practical importance. The proposed method allows to perform a numerical optimization on the degree distribution of a LT code aiming at minimizing the number of inactivations required for decoding.