Low-Complexity Puncturing and Shortening of Polar Codes

TL;DR

This paper proposes a unified, low-complexity method for constructing shortened and punctured polar codes, enabling flexible code lengths and rates with minimal complexity and competitive error performance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel unified approach for low-complexity construction of both punctured and shortened polar codes, simplifying design for various lengths and rates.

Findings

Reduces construction complexity significantly compared to existing methods.

Achieves block error rate performance comparable to optimized specialized constructions.

Suitable for practical communication systems with diverse code requirements.

Abstract

In this work, we address the low-complexity construction of shortened and punctured polar codes from a unified view. While several independent puncturing and shortening designs were attempted in the literature, our goal is a unique, low-complexity construction encompassing both techniques in order to achieve any code length and rate. We observe that our solution significantly reduces the construction complexity as compared to state-of-the-art solutions while providing a block error rate performance comparable to constructions that are highly optimized for specific lengths and rates. This makes the constructed polar codes highly suitable for practical application in future communication systems requiring a large set of polar codes with different lengths and rates.