ORCAS Codes: A Flexible Generalization of Polar Codes with Low-Complexity Decoding

TL;DR

ORCAS codes are a flexible, low-complexity decoding alternative to polar codes, achieving comparable or better performance and greater length flexibility through recursive concatenation of simplex codes.

Contribution

This paper introduces ORCAS codes, a novel recursive concatenation of simplex codes, offering improved performance and flexibility over traditional polar codes with low-complexity decoding.

Findings

Outperform polar codes in block error rate by up to 0.5 dB.

Maintain similar decoding complexity as polar codes.

Offer greater flexibility in codeword length.

Abstract

Motivated by the need for channel codes with low-complexity soft-decision decoding algorithms, we consider the recursive Plotkin concatenation of optimal low-rate and high-rate codes based on simplex codes and their duals. These component codes come with low-complexity maximum likelihood (ML) decoding which, in turn, enables efficient successive cancellation (SC)-based decoding. As a result, the proposed optimally recursively concatenated simplex (ORCAS) codes achieve a performance that is at least as good as that of polar codes. For practical parameters, the proposed construction significantly outperforms polar codes in terms of block error rate by up to 0.5 dB while maintaining similar decoding complexity. Furthermore, the codes offer greater flexibility in codeword length than conventional polar codes.