Researchers at Skoltech have presented new generalized LDPC codes (Generalized Low-Density Parity-Check Codes, GLDPC) — a practical solution that operates faster than modern solutions from the 5G standard while maintaining the original reliability of data transmission. Such codes are particularly important for designing next-generation wireless systems, where minimizing latency and ensuring reliable communication are among the key technological challenges. The results were published in the IEEE Wireless Communications Letters journal. The research was supported by Russian Science Foundation grant No. 23-11-00340.
LDPC codes (Low-Density Parity-Check Codes) are an encoding method that finds and corrects errors inevitably arising during data transmission (for example, when a phone receives a poor signal or Wi-Fi operates with interference). They perform their task effectively but require many processing cycles (“iterations”) to reliably correct errors, which creates delays. For next-generation systems, such delays are significant. GLDPC codes are more performant and powerful. Their main advantage is fast convergence, meaning they require fewer iterations to correct errors. Their primary drawback has been the lack of efficient decoding algorithms supporting hardware implementation with low complexity.
The authors of the work have introduced a new family of GLDPC codes based on duals of Cordaro-Wagner codes, along with efficient decoding algorithms. The study shows that the proposed codes not only match the performance of the LDPC codes from the 5G standard at a high number of iterations but also demonstrate a better error-correction capability and significantly faster convergence.
“The results showed that after 50 iterations, the new codes demonstrate error-correction performance comparable to 5G LDPC codes, while after just 10 iterations, the new codes significantly outperform classical 5G codes, correcting more errors in less time. This directly leads to a reduction in communication latency,” said Alexey Frolov, a co-author of the study, Professor, and Director of the Project Center for Next Generation Wireless and IoT at Skoltech.
The authors of the work include Research Engineers Dawit Simegn and Dmitry Artemasov from the 6G Technologies Laboratory, Assistant Professor Kirill Andreev and Leading Research Scientist Pavel Rybin from the Skoltech Project Center for Next Generation Wireless and IoT, as well as Professor Alexey Frolov, who heads the project center.
