Relay Station Soft-Decision Recoding for Error-Robust Wireless Links
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless communication apparatuses degrade error rate properties at the final receiver stage due to wasteful error correction decoding processes when errors are detected, leading to resource inefficiency and reduced reliability.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus subjects received signals to error correction decoding and transmits soft decision values instead of hard decision values when errors are detected, optimizing resource usage and maintaining reliability by re-coding soft decision values for relay.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If hard decision bits after error correction decoding are relayed when no error is detected, then resource consumption is reduced, but error rate property at the final receiver degrades when errors are present
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter being transmitted from hard decision bits (0 or 1) to soft decision values (real numbers representing confidence levels). This parameter change allows the relay station to transmit not only the decoded bits but also the reliability information, enabling the final receiver to make more accurate decisions while maintaining efficient error correction at the relay station.
2Productivity
If hard decision bits before error correction decoding are relayed when errors are detected, then signal transmission continues, but decision errors are propagated to the final receiver
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs error correction decoding before making the decision to relay. By preliminarily processing the signal through error correction decoding, the system obtains both the corrected bits and soft decision values that reflect the confidence level. This preliminary action prevents propagation of undetected errors while maintaining transmission continuity.
3Reliability
If error correction decoding is repeatedly performed when errors are detected, then reliability is improved, but resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts soft decision values from the error correction decoding process without requiring repeated full decoding iterations. By taking out the soft decision information that is already available after the first error correction decoding attempt, the system avoids the need for multiple resource-intensive decoding iterations while still providing reliability information for error detection at the final receiver.
Data Source
AI summary
An object of the invention is to provide a wireless communication apparatus which can correct error flexibly without wasting consumed resources while maintaining the improvement of reliability resulted from error correction. The wireless communication apparatus (relay station) 12 includes a receiving antenna 41 for receiving signals transmitted from the transmission station, a receiving RF section 42 for high-frequency amplifying the received signal, an error correction decoding section 43 for subjecting the received signal to the error correction decoding processing and outputting soft decision values and decoded bits, an error detection section 44 for subjecting the signal after the error correction decoding processing to the hard decision processing to detect error of the signal subjected to the hard decision processing, a switching section 45 for switching the soft decision values and the decoded bits, a re-coding section 46 for re-coding extracted ones of the soft decision values, a transmission RF section 47 for modulating the re-coded soft decision values and a transmission antenna 48 for transmitting the signal to the receiving station.