Self-optimizing decoders for modern error-correcting codes that promote energy efficiency on the basis sufficient quality

信道编码是所有现代通信系统的重要组成部分。此类代码的译码通常是现代无线接收器中计算最密集且耗电量最大的任务之一。信道编码的最新创新之一是极性码，这是一种可以证明可以实现所有实际上相关的信道的容量的码。最近，作为3GPP下一代移动通信标准(5G)的一部分，这类代码被迅速采用，这说明了这些代码的广泛认可的破坏性影响。尽管最近在高级译码算法和相应译码的设计方面取得了进展，但与20年来针对与之竞争的低密度奇偶校验(LDPC)和Turbo码的高效译码设计的研究成果相比，极坐标译码仍然处于起步阶段，在面积和能量效率方面落后。 当今极解码器(面积和能量)效率有限的一个重要且根本的原因深深植根于近乎最优译码策略的性质。这些高级算法探索多个假设以最大化成功的机会(即，找到正确的码字)。不幸的是，为了始终满足对采样率、吞吐量和延迟的期望，所有这些假设通常必须并行考虑，而竞争的代码使用迭代方案。在实践中，这导致了严重的管理费用，特别是在面积和电力消耗方面，这在最频繁的平均运行条件下是不必要的。大多数资源被浪费在计算结果上，而这些结果最终都被丢弃了。 拟议的研究计划集中于为极性码创建新的算法和解码器实现(软件或硬件)，这些算法和解码器实现在满足应用程序足够质量的同时是节能的。更广泛的目标是证明，我们不仅可以忍受可变运行时的不确定性，而且这样做可以提高能源效率。

Channel coding is an essential ingredient of all modern communication systems. Decoders of such codes are often one of the most computationally intensive and power hungry task in modern wireless receivers. One of the latest innovations in channel coding are polar codes, a type of codes that can provably achieve the capacity of all practically relevant channels. The widely-recognized disruptive impact of these codes is illustrated by the recent, rapid adoption of this class of codes as part of 3GPP's next-generation mobile-communication standard (5G). Despite the recent progress in the design of advanced decoding algorithms and corresponding decoders, compared to the achievements of 20+ research years in efficient decoder design for the competing low-density parity-check (LDPC) and turbo codes, polar decoders are still in their infancy, lagging behind in terms of area and energy efficiency. An important and fundamental reason for the limited (area and energy) efficiency of todays polar decoders is deeply rooted in the nature of close-to-optimal decoding strategies. These advanced algorithms explore multiple hypotheses to maximize the chance for success (i.e., finding the correct codeword). Unfortunately, in order to always meet expectations on sampling rate, throughput, and latency, all of these hypotheses must typically be considered in parallel whereas the competing codes use iterative schemes. In practice, this leads to severe overhead, notably in terms of area and power consumption, which is unnecessary under the most frequent average operating conditions. Most of the resources are wasted on calculations for results that are, in the end, discarded. The proposed research program focuses on the creation of novel algorithms and decoder implementations (software or hardware) for polar codes that are energy efficient while catering sufficient quality for the application. The broader objective is to demonstrate that not only we can live with the uncertainty of a variable runtime but that by doing so the energy efficiency is improved.