Fountain码编译码算法结构的改进

在LT码的基础上对Raptor码进行了分析。根据IRA码的结构及其线性时间的编译码特性,提出了Raptor码和IRA码相结合的改进Fountain码结构。研究结果表明,该结构既保持了线性的编译码特性又能有效增强信元的恢复能力。利用其它编码技术与Raptor码相结合是今后进一步的研究方向。     

Raptor codes on binary memoryless symmetric channels

In this paper, we will investigate the performance of Raptor codes on arbitrary binary input memoryless symmetric channels (BIMSCs). In doing so, we generalize some of the results that were proved before for the erasure channel. We will generalize the stability condition to the class of Raptor codes. This generalization gives a lower bound on the fraction of output nodes of degree 2 of a Raptor code if the error probability of the belief-propagation decoder converges to zero. Using information-theoretic arguments, we will show that if a sequence of output degree distributions is to achieve the capacity of the underlying channel, then the fraction of nodes of degree 2 in these degree distributions has to converge to a certain quantity depending on the channel. For the class of erasure channels this quantity is independent of the erasure probability of the channel, but for many other classes of BIMSCs, this fraction depends on the particular channel chosen. This result has implications on the "universality" of Raptor codes for classes other than the class of erasure channels, in a sense that will be made more precise in the paper. We will also investigate the performance of specific Raptor codes which are optimized using a more exact version of the Gaussian approximation technique.     

Application layer forward error correction for multicast streaming over LTE networks

The next step beyond third generation mobile networks is the Third Generation Partnership Project standard, named Long Term Evolution. A key feature of Long Term Evolution is the enhancement of multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS), where the same content is transmitted to multiple users located in a specific service area. To support efficient download and streaming delivery, the Third Generation Partnership Project included an application layer forward error correction (AL‐FEC) technique based on the systematic fountain Raptor code, in the MBMS standard. To achieve protection against packet losses, Raptor codes introduce redundant packets to the transmission, that is, the forward error correction overhead. In this work, we investigate the application of AL‐FEC over MBMS streaming services. We consider the benefits of AL‐FEC for a continuous multimedia stream transmission to multiple users and we examine how the amount of forward error correction redundancy can be adjusted under different packet loss conditions. For this purpose, we present a variety of realistic simulation scenarios for the application of AL‐FEC and furthermore we provide an in‐depth analysis of Raptor codes performance introducing valuable suggestions to achieve efficient use of Raptor codes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decoding with Early Termination for Raptor Codes

Rateless codes, and especially Raptor codes, have received considerable attention in the recent past due to their inherent ability to adapt to channel conditions and their capacity- approaching performance. Since decoding of rateless codes typically involves multiple decoding attempts, early termination of such attempts is mandatory for overall efficient decoding. In this letter, we propose a new decoding scheme with early termination that is particularly suited for rateless codes. Simulation results for the example of the binary symmetric channel show complexity reductions (in terms of the total required number of decoding iterations) by 87% compared to conventional message-passing decoding and 54% compared to a recently proposed incremental decoding scheme for Raptor codes.     

Embracing RaptorQ FEC in 3GPP multicast services

Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services (MBMS) have been introduced by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) aiming to efficiently deliver data to mobile users in a one-to-many way. In order to provide reliable multicast transmission, 3GPP recommends exclusively for MBMS the use of a Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism on the application layer. Raptor codes are standardized as the Application Layer FEC (AL-FEC) scheme over 3GPP MBMS. However, the 3GPP standardized systematic fountain Raptor code is nowadays considered obsolete, since a new variation of the Raptor codes has emerged. This enhanced AL-FEC scheme, named RaptorQ, promises higher protection efficiency and superior flexibility on the provision of demanding mobile multicast services. In this work, we provide an extensive performance evaluation presenting at first a theoretical performance comparison of the newly introduced RaptorQ FEC scheme with its predecessor Raptor code, examining the enhancements that RaptorQ introduces on the AL-FEC protection robustness. Thereafter, to verify the enhanced performance of RaptorQ, we present several simulation results considering the modeling of the AL-FEC protection over multicast services for next generation mobile networks, utilizing the ns-3 simulation environment. Investigating several mobile system parameters in conjunction with FEC encoding parameters, we provide valuable results regarding the impacts of the examined AL-FEC schemes application on the multicast services performance.     

Raptor codes

LT-codes are a new class of codes introduced by Luby for the purpose of scalable and fault-tolerant distribution of data over computer networks. In this paper, we introduce Raptor codes, an extension of LT-codes with linear time encoding and decoding. We will exhibit a class of universal Raptor codes: for a given integer k and any real epsiv>0, Raptor codes in this class produce a potentially infinite stream of symbols such that any subset of symbols of size k(1+epsiv) is sufficient to recover the original k symbols with high probability. Each output symbol is generated using O(log(1/epsiv)) operations, and the original symbols are recovered from the collected ones with O(klog(1/epsiv)) operations. We will also introduce novel techniques for the analysis of the error probability of the decoder for finite length Raptor codes. Moreover, we will introduce and analyze systematic versions of Raptor codes, i.e., versions in which the first output elements of the coding system coincide with the original k elements     

Soft-switching hybrid FSO/RF links using short-length raptor codes: design and implementation

Free-space optical (FSO) links offer gigabit per second data rates and low system complexity, but suffer from atmospheric loss due to fog and scintillation. Radio-frequency (RF) links have lower data rates, but are relatively insensitive to weather. Hybrid FSO/RF links combine the advantages of both links. Currently, selection or ?hard-switching? is performed between FSO or RF links depending on feedback from the receiver. This technique is inefficient since only one medium is used at a time. In this paper, we develop a ?soft-switching? scheme for hybrid FSO/RF links using short-length Raptor codes. Raptor encoded packets are sent simultaneously on both links and the code adapts to the conditions on either link with very limited feedback. A set of short-length Raptor codes (k = 16 to 1024) are presented which are amenable to highspeed implementation. A practical Raptor encoder and decoder are implemented in an FPGA and shown to support a 714 Mbps data rate with a 97 mW power consumption and 26360 gate circuit scale. The performance of the switching algorithms is simulated in a realistic channel model based on climate data. For a 1 Gbps FSO link combined with a 96 Mbps WiMAX RF link, an average rate of over 472 Mbps is achieved using the implemented Raptor code while hard-switching techniques achieved 112 Mbps on average.     

Design of Systematic Unequal Error Protection Raptor Codes Over Binary Erasure Channels

The third generation partnership project (3GPP) and digital video broadcasting-handheld standards recommend systematic Raptor codes as application-layer forward error correction for reliable transmission of multimedia data. In all previous studies on systematic Raptor codes, equal error protection for all data was considered. However, in many applications, multimedia data requires unequal error protection (UEP) that provides different levels of protection to different parts of multimedia data. In this paper, we propose a new design method for Raptor codes that provide both UEP and systematic properties over binary erasure channels. Numerical results show that the proposed UEP design is effective for reliable multi-level protection.     

Quasi-systematic doped LT codes

We propose a family of binary erasure codes, namely, quasi-systematic doped Luby-Transform (QS-DLT) codes, that are rateless, almost systematic, and universally capacity-achieving without the prior knowledge of channel erasure rate. The encoding and decoding complexities of QS-DLT codes are O(Klog(1/ϵ)), where K is the information length, and ϵ is the overhead. Stopping-set analysis is carried out to study the error-floor behavior of QS-DLT codes. Analysis and numerical results demonstrate that QS-DLT codes provide a low-complexity alternative to systematic Raptor codes with comparable performance.     

Rateless Codes With Unequal Error Protection Property

In this correspondence, a generalization of rateless codes is proposed. The proposed codes provide unequal error protection (UEP). The asymptotic properties of these codes under the iterative decoding are investigated. Moreover, upper and lower bounds on maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding error probabilities of finite-length LT and Raptor codes for both equal and unequal error protection schemes are derived. Further, our work is verified with simulations. Simulation results indicate that the proposed codes provide desirable UEP. We also note that the UEP property does not impose a considerable drawback on the overall performance of the codes. Moreover, we discuss that the proposed codes can provide unequal recovery time (URT). This means that given a target bit error rate, different parts of information bits can be decoded after receiving different amounts of encoded bits. This implies that the information bits can be recovered in a progressive manner. This URT property may be used for sequential data recovery in video/audio streaming     

喷泉码在多播传输机制中的应用

首先研究了数字喷泉码优异的前向纠错特性;其次,在IEEE802.16e标准基础上引入了多播广播服务(MBS)小区的概念,给出了MBS小区规划算法;接着,对多种度分布的数字喷泉码应用在多播传输机制中进行仿真和分析,最后得出结论。仿真结果表明,在每包2 000比特、开销20%时,采用Raptor度分布的数字喷泉编码能够保证误码率在0.1%以下,可实现高效率高可靠性的数据传输。多播传输机制中使用数字喷泉码,能够提高接收效率,适应时变信道与异质用户,并实现异步和断续接收。     

无速率编码及其应用综述

纠错编码技术通过引入冗余增加可靠性,是现代通信的关键技术之一。无速率编码是一类新兴纠错编码,其速率可以根据信道状态自适应改变,编译码算法较为简单,且性能优异,可以适用于不同的应用场景,因此受到了国内外学者和工业界的关注。介绍了4种经典或新兴的无速率编码方案,包括卢比变换(Luby Transform,LT)码、Raptor码、在线喷泉码(OFC)和BATS(Batched Sparse)码。介绍无速率编码的基本原理,通过其发展过程比较不同无速率编码的特点。阐述了这些无速率编码的编译码方法,并简要介绍其最新的研究进展。最后,介绍无速率编码在广播通信及不等差保护、无线传感器网络、车联网、存储以及分布式计算等新老场景中的应用。无速率编码是一种复杂度低、灵活度高的编码,随着新型无速率编码的发展,在未来的分布式系统等场景中将会有更广泛的应用。     

Optimization and realization of SWIPT relay channel transmission rate based on rateless code

The optimization of the transmission rate and implementation of the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer in a relay system were studied.In a three-node two-hop system,the decode-and-forward protocol was employed by the relay node.One transmission period was divided into two phases.The first phase was the simultaneous transmission of the information and energy from the source to the relay.The received signal at the relay node was split to two parts.One part was used for information decoding,and the other was converted into energy for information forwarding in the second phase.In the second phase,the information was forwarded according to the decode-and-forward protocol by the relay.The power splitting factor was optimized to minimize the total time of the two hops for the transmission of a certain amount of information when the durations of the two hops were unequal.Furthermore,Raptor codes were combined with different modulation modes to realize different transmission rates on the two hops for the efficient utilization of the different channel capacities in the two hops.The selection mechanism of the codeword length of Raptor codes and modulation mode was given.The simulation proves that the two hops with unequal durations can achieve a higher throughput,and the capacity of the relay channel can be efficiently used by employing Raptor codes,and an efficient and reliable transmission is realized.     

A Reconfigurable TDMP Decoder for Raptor Codes

A Raptor code is a concatenation of a fixed rate precode and a Luby-Transform (LT) code that can be used as a rateless error-correcting code over communication channels. By definition, Raptor codes are characterized by irregularity features such as dynamic rate, check-degree variability, and joint coding, which make the design of hardware-efficient decoders a challenging task. In this paper, serial turbo decoding of architecture-aware Raptor codes is mapped into sequential row processing of a regular matrix by using a combination of code enhancements and architectural optimizations. The proposed mapping approach is based on three basic steps: (1) applying systematic permutations on the source matrix of the Raptor code, (2) confining LT random encoding to pseudo-random permutation of messages and periodic selection of row-splitting scenarios, and (3) developing a reconfigurable parallel check-node processor that attains a constant throughput while processing LT- and LDPC-nodes of varying degrees and count. The decoder scheduling is, thus, made simple and uniform across both LDPC and LT decoding. A serial decoder implementing the proposed approach was synthesized in 65 nm, 1.2 V CMOS technology. Hardware simulations show that the decoder, decoding a rate-0.4 code instance, achieves a throughput of 36 Mb/s at SNR of 1.5 dB, dissipates an average power of 27 mW and occupies an area of 0.55 mm².     

基于无率纠错码和高阶QAM调制的收端速率自适应方案

现有的自适应解调方案中调制阶数最高仅限于16,且方案分析和设计中没有考虑信道编码的译码环节.本文研究适用于高阶QAM的自适应解调算法,并结合无率纠错码提出一种收端速率自适应方案.接收端有多种解调模式,每种解调模式删除一个符号中不同数量的、似然比绝对值最低的几个比特,以提高解调比特的可靠度和平均互信息.从互信息分析的角度,得到在满足要求的译码误码性能时,译码所需要的码字长度的理论结果,进一步给出在译码复杂度约束条件下解调模式的选择方案.以256-QAM调制星座和Raptor码为例对方案进行了仿真,验证了理论分析的正确性和方案的有效性.     

On‐Chip Multiprocessor with Simultaneous Multithreading

As more transistors are integrated onto bigger die, an on‐chip multiprocessor will become a promising alternative to the superscalar microprocessor that dominates today's microprocessor marketplace. This paper describes key parts of a new on‐chip multiprocessor, called Raptor, which is composed of four 2‐way superscalar processor cores and one graphic co‐processor. To obtain performance characteristics of Raptor, a program‐driven simulator and its programming environment were developed. The simulation results showed that Raptor can exploit thread level parallelism effectively and offer a promising architecture for future on‐chip multiprocessor designs.     

On the design of raptor codes for binary-input gaussian channels

This paper studies the problem of Raptor-code design for binary-input AWGN (BIAWGN) channels using the mean-LLR-EXIT chart approach presented in [1]. We report that there exist situations where such a design approach may fail or fail to produce capacity-achieving codes, for certain ranges of channel SNR. Suggestions and discussions are provided pertaining to the design of Raptor codes for BIAWGN channels using the mean-LLR-EXIT chart.     

Packet-centric approach to distributed sparse-graph coding in wireless ad hoc networks

In this paper we present a packet-centric approach for distributed coding in decentralized wireless ad hoc networks, for applications in distributed data storage, data persistence and efficient data gathering. We study the setting where each of N network nodes generates an information packet and the goal is to efficiently encode information packets and disseminate produced encoded packets across the network in such fashion that gathering of any subset of slightly more than N encoded packets allows for retrieval of the original information. The process of distributed encoding is performed using packets that randomly walk over the network and sample information packets from network nodes, producing the encoded packets in a simple, elegant, fully decentralized and stateless way. The proposed scheme maintains properties of centralized codes in terms of performance parameters, offering at the same time advantage of robustness to node failures and changes in network topology. We specialize the proposed scheme for several important classes of low-complexity encodable/decodable sparse-graph codes – LDGM, LDPC (IRA), LT, and Raptor codes, evaluating its performance via simulation for various data-gathering scenarios.     

Performance-Complexity Tradeoffs of Raptor Codes over Gaussian Channels

We investigate the performance-complexity tradeoffs of Raptor codes over Gaussian channels. Two different implementations of the belief-propagation (BP) decoding algorithm are considered, which we respectively refer to as "message-reset decoding" and "incremental decoding". We show that incremental decoding offers great advantages over message-reset decoding in terms of this tradeoff     

Robust multipoint and multi-layered transmission of H.264/SVC with Raptor codes

The scalable extension of the H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard called Scalable Video Coding (SVC), or H.264/SVC, provides scalable video streams which are composed by a base layer and one or more enhancement layers. Enhancement layers may improve the temporal, the spatial or the signal-to-noise ratio resolutions of the content represented by the lower layers. One of the applications of this video coding standard is related to point-to-multipoint video distributions in both wired and wireless communication systems, where packet losses contribute to the degradation of the user’s Quality of Experience. Designed for the transmission of data over Binary Erasure Channels (BEC), Raptor codes are a Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanism that is gaining popularity for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) applications due to their small decoding complexity and reduced overhead. This paper evaluates the quality enhancements introduced by the integration of several H.264/SVC layers with a Raptor coding protection scheme. Our goal is to improve the distribution of video over loss prone networks in terms of rate-distortion performance by assessing several alternative packetization options and protection schemes.