Fast Sequential Decoding of Polar Codes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel score function for stack decoding of polar codes that improves efficiency by accurately comparing paths of different lengths, reducing complexity with minimal performance loss.

Contribution

It proposes a new score function incorporating bias to enhance stack decoding of polar codes, significantly reducing complexity.

Findings

Complexity is reduced compared to the original stack algorithm.

Performance loss is negligible with the new score function.

The method improves decoding efficiency for polar codes.

Abstract

A new score function is proposed for stack decoding of polar codes, which enables one to accurately compare paths of different lengths. The proposed score function includes bias, which reflects the average behaviour of the correct path. This enables significant complexity reduction with respect to the original stack algorithm at the expense of a negligible performance loss.