Step-GRAND: A Low Latency Universal Soft-input Decoder
Syed Mohsin Abbas, Marwan Jalaleddine, Chi-Ying Tsui, Warren J., Gross

TL;DR
Step-GRAND is a novel soft-input decoding algorithm that significantly reduces worst-case latency and improves hardware efficiency for decoding polar codes, enabling high-throughput, low-latency communication systems.
Contribution
It introduces step-GRAND, a soft-input variant of GRAND that enhances worst-case latency and hardware efficiency compared to previous soft-input decoders.
Findings
Decodes CA-polar code (128,105+11) at 47.7 Gbps throughput
Achieves 10x area efficiency over previous ORBGRAND hardware
Reduces worst-case latency to 1/6.8 of prior ORBGRAND hardware
Abstract
GRAND features both soft-input and hard-input variants that are well suited to efficient hardware implementations that can be characterized with achievable average and worst-case decoding latency. This paper introduces step-GRAND, a soft-input variant of GRAND that, in addition to achieving appealing average decoding latency, also reduces the worst-case decoding latency of the corresponding hardware implementation. The hardware implementation results demonstrate that the proposed step-GRAND can decode CA-polar code with an average information throughput of Gbps at the target FER of . Furthermore, the proposed step-GRAND hardware is more area efficient than the previous soft-input ORBGRAND hardware implementation, and its worst-case latency is that of the previous ORBGRAND hardware.
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Taxonomy
TopicsError Correcting Code Techniques · Advanced Wireless Communication Techniques · Coding theory and cryptography
