Polar Code Puncture Patterns for Incremental Redundancy Retransmission

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Solution Overview

Problem

In wireless communications, polar coded re-transmissions often require identical bits for all re-transmissions to support soft-combining, limiting incremental redundancy gain and increasing decoding complexity, leading to high processing overhead.

Innovation Solution

Implementing equivalent puncture sets by manipulating puncturing patterns for re-transmissions, where the base station determines a second puncturing pattern that is equivalent to the initial pattern, allowing for different redundancy versions and improving decoding reliability through joint decoding of initial and re-transmitted information.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If identical bits are used for all re-transmissions to support soft-combining, then decoding reliability is improved, but incremental redundancy gain is lost and decoding complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedecoding reliabilityVSAvoiddecoding complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The puncturing pattern is segmented into multiple equivalent patterns that can be selectively applied to different re-transmissions. Each pattern segment provides different redundancy information, allowing the system to divide the re-transmission process into distinct redundancy versions rather than repeating identical bits, thus enabling incremental redundancy while maintaining manageable decoding complexity through structured pattern selection

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The invention changes the puncturing pattern parameter across re-transmissions by selecting from multiple equivalent patterns. Instead of keeping the same puncturing pattern for all re-transmissions, the system varies the pattern parameters (which bits are punctured) while maintaining equivalence properties, thereby providing incremental redundancy information without requiring identical bit sequences and reducing the need for complex soft-combining operations

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Productivity

If different redundancy versions are used for re-transmissions to achieve incremental redundancy gain, then processing overhead is reduced, but decoding reliability may deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprocessing overheadVSAvoiddecoding reliability
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

Multiple puncturing patterns are designed to be equivalent in terms of decoding performance, meaning each pattern serves the universal function of providing reliable decoding while differing in their specific redundancy information. This multi-functionality allows the system to use different patterns (different redundancy versions) without sacrificing reliability, as each pattern is guaranteed to provide equivalent decoding performance while enabling incremental redundancy and reducing processing overhead

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentEP3861652B1Equivalent puncture sets for polar coded re-transmissions
Publication Date: 2024.05.15 QUALCOMM INC
  • EP3861652B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3861652B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3861652B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Wireless devices may use polar codes for encoding transmissions and may support combining transmissions to improve decoding reliability (e.g., by achieving chase combining and incremental redundancy (IR) gains). For example, an encoding device may puncture a set of mother code bits using different puncturing patterns to obtain different redundancy versions for a first transmission and a re-transmission. Each puncturing pattern may correspond to an equivalent decoding performance. In some cases, to obtain equivalent puncture sets, the encoding device may perform punctured index manipulation procedures on an initial puncturing pattern. A punctured index manipulation procedure may involve switching a binary state for a binary bit at a same binary bit index for each puncture index in a puncturing pattern. A device may receive the transmissions generated using the equivalent puncture sets and may combine the information for improved decoding reliability.