Decoding methods

In coding theory, decoding is the process of translating received messages into codewords of a given code. There have been many common methods of mapping messages to codewords. These are often used to recover messages sent over a noisy channel, such as a binary symmetric channel.

Notation

C \subset \mathbb{F}_2^n is considered a binary code with the length n; x,y shall be elements of \mathbb{F}_2^n; and d(x,y) is the distance between those elements.

Ideal observer decoding

One may be given the message x \in \mathbb{F}_2^n, then ideal observer decoding generates the codeword y \in C. The process results in this solution:

\mathbb{P}(y \mbox{ sent} \mid x \mbox{ received})

For example, a person can choose the codeword y that is most likely to be received as the message x after transmission.

Decoding conventions

Each codeword does not have an expected possibility: there may be more than one codeword with an equal likelihood of mutating into the received message. In such a case, the sender and receiver(s) must agree ahead of time on a decoding convention. Popular conventions include:

  1. Request that the codeword be resent -- automatic repeat-request
  2. Choose any random codeword from the set of most likely codewords which is nearer to that.

Maximum likelihood decoding

Further information: Maximum likelihood

Given a received codeword x \in \mathbb{F}_2^n maximum likelihood decoding picks a codeword y \in C that maximizes

\mathbb{P}(x \mbox{ received} \mid y \mbox{ sent}),

that is, the codeword y that maximizes the probability that x was received, given that y was sent. If all codewords are equally likely to be sent then this scheme is equivalent to ideal observer decoding. In fact, by Bayes Theorem,


\begin{align}
\mathbb{P}(x \mbox{ received} \mid y \mbox{ sent}) & {} = \frac{ \mathbb{P}(x \mbox{ received} , y \mbox{ sent}) }{\mathbb{P}(y \mbox{ sent} )} \\
& {} = \mathbb{P}(y \mbox{ sent} \mid x \mbox{ received}) \cdot \frac{\mathbb{P}(x \mbox{ received})}{\mathbb{P}(y \mbox{ sent})}.
\end{align}

Upon fixing \mathbb{P}(x \mbox{ received}), x is restructured and \mathbb{P}(y \mbox{ sent}) is constant as all codewords are equally likely to be sent. Therefore 
\mathbb{P}(x \mbox{ received} \mid y \mbox{ sent}) 
is maximised as a function of the variable y precisely when 
\mathbb{P}(y \mbox{ sent}\mid x \mbox{ received} ) 
is maximised, and the claim follows.

As with ideal observer decoding, a convention must be agreed to for non-unique decoding.

The maximum likelihood decoding problem can also be modeled as an integer programming problem.[1]

The maximum likelihood decoding algorithm is an instance of the "marginalize a product function" problem which is solved by applying the generalized distributive law.[2]

Minimum distance decoding

Given a received codeword x \in \mathbb{F}_2^n, minimum distance decoding picks a codeword y \in C to minimise the Hamming distance :

d(x,y) = \# \{i : x_i \not = y_i \}

i.e. choose the codeword y that is as close as possible to x.

Note that if the probability of error on a discrete memoryless channel p is strictly less than one half, then minimum distance decoding is equivalent to maximum likelihood decoding, since if

d(x,y) = d,\,

then:


\begin{align}
\mathbb{P}(y \mbox{ received} \mid x \mbox{ sent}) & {} = (1-p)^{n-d} \cdot p^d \\
& {} = (1-p)^n \cdot \left( \frac{p}{1-p}\right)^d \\
\end{align}

which (since p is less than one half) is maximised by minimising d.

Minimum distance decoding is also known as nearest neighbour decoding. It can be assisted or automated by using a standard array. Minimum distance decoding is a reasonable decoding method when the following conditions are met:

  1. The probability p that an error occurs is independent of the position of the symbol
  2. Errors are independent events - an error at one position in the message does not affect other positions

These assumptions may be reasonable for transmissions over a binary symmetric channel. They may be unreasonable for other media, such as a DVD, where a single scratch on the disk can cause an error in many neighbouring symbols or codewords.

As with other decoding methods, a convention must be agreed to for non-unique decoding.

Syndrome decoding

Syndrome decoding is a highly efficient method of decoding a linear code over a noisy channel - i.e. one on which errors are made. In essence, syndrome decoding is minimum distance decoding using a reduced lookup table. This is allowed by the linearity of the code.

Suppose that C\subset \mathbb{F}_2^n is a linear code of length n and minimum distance d with parity-check matrix H. Then clearly C is capable of correcting up to

t = \left\lfloor\frac{d-1}{2}\right\rfloor

errors made by the channel (since if no more than t errors are made then minimum distance decoding will still correctly decode the incorrectly transmitted codeword).

Now suppose that a codeword x \in \mathbb{F}_2^n is sent over the channel and the error pattern e \in \mathbb{F}_2^n occurs. Then z=x+e is received. Ordinary minimum distance decoding would lookup the vector z in a table of size |C| for the nearest match - i.e. an element (not necessarily unique) c \in C with

d(c,z) \leq d(y,z)

for all y \in C. Syndrome decoding takes advantage of the property of the parity matrix that:

Hx = 0

for all x \in C. The syndrome of the received z=x+e is defined to be:

Hz = H(x+e) =Hx + He = 0 + He = He

To perform ML decoding in a Binary symmetric channel, one has to look-up a precomputed table of size 2^{n-k}, mapping He to e.
Note that this is already of significantly less complexity than that of a Standard array decoding.

However, under the assumption that no more than t errors were made during transmission, the receiver can looks up the value He in a further reduced table of size


\begin{matrix}
\sum_{i=0}^t \binom{n}{i} < |C| \\
\end{matrix}

only (for a binary code). The table is against pre-computed values of He for all possible error patterns e \in \mathbb{F}_2^n.

Knowing what e is, it is then trivial to decode x as:

x = z - e

Partial response maximum likelihood

Main article: PRML

Partial response maximum likelihood (PRML) is a method for converting the weak analog signal from the head of a magnetic disk or tape drive into a digital signal.

Viterbi decoder

Main article: Viterbi decoder

A Viterbi decoder uses the Viterbi algorithm for decoding a bitstream that has been encoded using forward error correction based on a convolutional code. The Hamming distance is used as a metric for hard decision Viterbi decoders. The squared Euclidean distance is used as a metric for soft decision decoders.

See also

Sources

References

  1. Feldman, Jon; Wainwright, Martin J.; Karger, David R. (March 2005). "Using Linear Programming to Decode Binary Linear Codes". IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 51 (3). pp. 954–972. doi:10.1109/TIT.2004.842696.
  2. Aji, Srinivas M.; McEliece, Robert J. (March 2000). "The Generalized Distributive Law". IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 46 (2): 325–343. doi:10.1109/18.825794.
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