Publication

Abstract : Polar Codes have lately been chosen for control channels in physical layer (Layer 1) as short code communication in 5G for error correction. The standard clearly defines the algorithm for polar encoder. However, the standard doesn't explicitly state the algorithm for polar decoders. Polar decoders are of key value for the equipment manufacturers/chip vendors for showing better system performance with control channels. This work focuses on exploring and analyzing some of the polar decoder algorithms, validating performance by simulation, and identifying suggestions for better performance characteristics. Performance with respect to block error rate versus SNR (signal-to-noise ratio), execution time, and complexity is discussed and compared with the legacy decoders. A new methodology is proposed to overcome the long processing cycle times and larger memory size requirement with proper selection of the algorithm in consideration of the standard deviation of the demodulated I&Q soft bit samples. Results from SC (successive cancellation) and SCL (successive cancellation list) algorithms along with the proposed improvement in decoder are explained and discussed.