Joint Polar Coding for Downlink Control Information Latency

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Solution Overview

Problem

In LTE systems, achieving a high coding gain for control information while minimizing processing latency in user equipment is challenging due to the limitations of existing channel coding methods, which often require decoding of long codes that increase latency.

Innovation Solution

The method involves jointly coding multiple pieces of downlink control information (DCI) using polar coding, allowing for sequential decoding and reducing latency, while also improving transmission reliability by determining the N pieces of to-be-jointly-coded DCI and cascading them in a specific order before applying polar coding.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If traditional separate coding methods are used for multiple DCI pieces, then device complexity is reduced, but coding gain is insufficient and transmission reliability deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetransmission reliabilityVSAvoidcoding complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple separate DCI coding processes into a single joint polar coding process. Multiple DCI pieces are concatenated and encoded together using one polar code, which increases coding gain and transmission reliability while the sequential decoding mechanism keeps the complexity manageable at the receiver side.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Reliability

If long codes are used for coding control information, then coding gain is improved, but processing latency increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecoding gainVSAvoidprocessing latency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the decoding process into a sequential manner where the receiver decodes DCI pieces one by one in order. Once a DCI piece is successfully decoded and verified, the corresponding UE can stop further decoding operations. This segmentation allows the system to use long codes for high coding gain while reducing average processing latency through early termination.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements partial decoding action where the receiver only decodes as many DCI pieces as necessary to find its own DCI. If a UE's DCI is located early in the sequence, decoding can stop there, performing less than the full decoding of all concatenated DCI pieces, thus reducing average latency while maintaining the benefits of long-code polar coding.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Reliability

If multiple DCI pieces are jointly coded using polar coding, then coding gain is improved, but decoding complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvechannel coding gainVSAvoiddecoding complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the joint polar code into multiple DCI pieces with known boundaries and lengths. The receiver uses this segmentation to perform sequential decoding, processing one DCI piece at a time rather than decoding the entire concatenated code block at once, which reduces instantaneous decoding complexity while maintaining the coding gains of the long polar code.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent enables partial decoding where the receiver stops decoding after successfully identifying its own DCI piece within the concatenated sequence. This means the receiver performs less decoding work than would be required to decode all DCI pieces completely, reducing average decoding complexity while still achieving the high coding gain benefits of joint polar coding.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP3565151B1Method and device for controlling information transmission
Publication Date: 2023.05.24 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3565151B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3565151B1 patent drawingFigure 3
  • EP3565151B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

Embodiments of the present invention provide a control information transmission method and apparatus. The control information transmission method includes: determining, by a network device, N pieces of to-be-jointly-coded downlink control information DCI, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2; coding, by the network device, the N pieces of DCI in a polar polar coding manner, to obtain one codeword; and mapping, by the network device, the codeword to a time-frequency resource of a downlink control channel for sending. According to the embodiments of the present invention, not only a relatively high coding gain can be obtained, but a relatively low average processing latency on a decoder side can also be obtained.