Zemor’s decoding algorithm

Zemor’s algorithm, designed and developed by Gilles Zemor, is a recursive low-complexity approach to code construction. It is an improvement over the algorithm of and .

Zemor considered a typical class of Sipser–Spielman construction of expander codes, where the underlying graph is . Sipser and Spielman introduced a constructive family of asymptotically good linear-error codes together with a simple parallel algorithm that will always remove a constant fraction of errors. The article is based on Dr. Venkatesan Guruswami’s course notes

Contents

Code construction

Zemor’s algorithm is based on a type of called . The construction of code was first proposed by Tanner. The codes are based on d, regular expander G, which is a bipartite graph. G = left(V,Eright), where V is the set of vertices and E is the set of edges and V = AcupB and AcapB = emptyset, where A and B denotes the set of 2 vertices. Let n be the number of vertices in each group, i.e, |A| =|B| =n. The edge set E be of size N =nd and every edge in E has one endpoint in both A and B. E(v) denotes the set of edges containing v.

Assume an ordering on V, therefore ordering will be done on every edges of E(v) for every v in V. Let mathbb{F}=GF(2), and for a word x=(x_e), ein E in mathbb{F}^N, let the subword of the word will be indexed by E(v). Let that word be denoted by (x)_v. The subset of vertices A and B induces every word xin mathbb{F}^N a partition into n non-overlapping sub-words  left(xright)_vin mathbb{F}^d, where v ranges over the elements of A. For constructing a code C, consider a linear subcode C_o, which is a [d,r_od,delta] code, where q, the size of the alphabet is 2. For any vertex v in V, let  v(1), v(2),ldots,v(d) be some ordering of the d vertices of E adjacent to v. In this code, each bit x_e is linked with an edge e of E.

We can define the code C to be the set of binary vectors x = left( x_1,x_2,ldots,x_N right) of {0,1}^N such that, for every vertex v of V,  left(x_{v(1)}, x_{v(2)},ldots, x_{v(d)}right) is a code word of C_o. In this case, we can consider a special case when every vertex of E is adjacent to exactly 2 vertices of V. It means that V and E make up, respectively, the vertex set and edge set of d regular graph G.

Let us call the code C constructed in this way as left(G,C_oright) code. For a given graph G and a given code C_o, there are several left(G,C_oright) codes as there are different ways of ordering edges incident to a given vertex v, i.e.,  v(1), v(2),ldots,v(d) . In fact our code C consist of all codewords such that x_vin C_o for all v in A, B. The code  C is linear [N,K,D] in mathbb{F} as it is generated from a subcode C_o, which is linear. The code C is defined as C={cin mathbb{F}^N :(c)_v in C_o} for every vin V.

In this figure, (x)_v =left(x_{e1}, x_{e2}, x_{e3}, x_{e4}right)in C_o. It shows the graph G and code C.

In matrix G, let lambda is equal to the second largest of of G. Here the largest eigen value is  d. Two important claims are made:

Claim 1

left(dfrac{K}{N}right)geq 2r_o-1
. Let R be the rate of a linear code constructed from a bipartite graph whose digit nodes have degree m and whose subcode nodes have degree n. If a single linear code with parameters left(n,kright) and rate r = left(dfrac{k}{n}right) is associated with each of the subcode nodes, then kgeq 1-left(1-rright)m.

Proof

Let R be the rate of the linear code, which is equal to K/N Let there are S subcode nodes in the graph. If the degree of the subcode is n, then the code must have left(dfrac{n}{m}right) S digits, as each digit node is connected to m of the left(nright)S edges in the graph. Each subcode node contributes (n-k) equations to parity check matrix for a total of left(n-kright) S. These equations may not be linearly independent. Therefore, left(dfrac{K}{N}right)geq left(dfrac{(dfrac{n}{m})S - (n-k)S}{(dfrac{n}{m}) S}right)
geq 1-mleft(dfrac{n-k}{n}right)
geq 1-m left(1-rright) , Since the value of m,i.e., the digit node of this bipartite graph is 2 and here r = r_o, we can write as:
left(dfrac{K}{N}right)geq 2r_o -1

Claim 2

Dgeq Nleft(dfrac{(delta-(dfrac{lambda}{d}))}{(1-(dfrac{lambda}{d})})right)^2
=Nleft(delta^2- Oleft(dfrac{lambda}{d}right)right)rightarrow (1)

If  S is linear code of rate r, block code length  d, and minimum relative distance delta, and if B is the edge vertex incidence graph of a d – regular graph with second largest eigen value lambda, then the code C(B,S) has rate at least 2r_o -1 and minimum relative distance at least left(left(dfrac{delta- left(dfrac{lambda}{d}right)}{1-left(dfrac{lambda}{d}right)}right)right)^2.

Proof

Let  B be derived from the d regular graph G. So, the number of variables of C(B,S) is  left(dfrac{dn}{2}right) and the number of constraints is n. According to Alon – Chung, if X is a subset of vertices of G of size gamma n, then the number of edges contained in the subgraph is induced by X in G is at most left(dfrac{dn}{2}right) left(gamma^2 + (dfrac{lambda}{d})gamma left(1-gammaright)right).

As a result, any set of left(dfrac{dn}{2}right) left(gamma^2 + left(dfrac{lambda}{d}right)gamma left(1-gammaright)right) variables will be having at least gamma n constraints as neighbours. So the average number of variables per constraint is : left(dfrac{(dfrac{2nd}{2}) left(gamma^2 + (dfrac{lambda}{d})gamma left(1-gammaright)right)}{gamma n}right)= dleft( gamma + (dfrac{lambda}{d}) left( 1-gammaright)right)rightarrow (2)

So if  dleft( gamma + (dfrac{lambda}{d}) left( 1-gammaright)right) < gamma d, then a word of relative weight  left(gamma^2 + (dfrac{lambda}{d})gamma left(1-gammaright)right), cannot be a codeword of C(B,S). The inequality (2) is satisfied for gamma < left(dfrac{1-(dfrac{lambda}{d})}{delta-(dfrac{lambda}{d})}right). Therefore, C(B,S) cannot have a non zero codeword of relative weight left(dfrac{delta-(dfrac{lambda}{d})}{1-(dfrac{lambda}{d})}right)^2 or less.

In matrix G, we can assume that lambda/d is bounded away from 1. For those values of  d in which d-1 is odd prime, there are explicit constructions of sequences of  d – regular bipartite graphs with arbitrarily large number of vertices such that each graph G in the sequence is a . It is called Ramanujan graph as it satisfies the inequality lambda(G) leq 2sqrt{d-1}. Certain expansion properties are visible in graph G as the separation between the eigen values d and  lambda . If the graph  G is Ramanujan graph, then that expression (1) will become 0 eventually as  d becomes large.

Zemor’s algorithm

The iterative decoding algorithm written below alternates between the vertices A and B in G and corrects the codeword of C_o in A and then it switches to correct the codeword C_o in B. Here edges associated with a vertex on one side of a graph are not incident to other vertex on that side. In fact, it doesn’t matter in which order, the set of nodes A and B are processed. The vertex processing can also be done in parallel.

The decoder mathbb{D}:mathbb{F}^d rightarrow C_ostands for a decoder for C_o that recovers correctly with any codewords with less than left(dfrac{d}{2}right) errors.

Decoder algorithm

Received word : w=(w_e), ein E
z leftarrow w
For t leftarrow 1 to m do //m is the number of iterations
{ if (t is odd) // Here the algorithm will alternate between its two vertex sets.
X leftarrow A
else X leftarrow B
Iteration t: For every v in X, let (z)_v leftarrow mathbb{D}((z)_v) // Decoding z_v to its nearest codeword.
}
Output: z

Explanation of the algorithm

Since G is bipartite, the set A of vertices induces the partition of the edge set E = cup_{vin A} E_v . The set B induces another partition, E = cup_{vin B} E_v .

Let w in {0,1}^N be the received vector, and recall that N=dn. The first iteration of the algorithm consists of applying the complete decoding for the code induced by E_v for every v in A . This means that for replacing, for every v in A, the vector left( w_{v(1)}, w_{v(2)}, ldots, w_{v(d)}right) by one of the closest codewords of C_o. Since the subsets of edges E_v are disjoint for v in A, the decoding of these n subvectors of w may be done in parallel.

The iteration will yield a new vector z. The next iteration consists of applying the preceding procedure to z but with A replaced by B. In other words, it consists of decoding all the subvectors induced by the vertices of B. The coming iterations repeat those two steps alternately applying parallel decoding to the subvectors induced by the vertices of A and to the subvectors induced by the vertices of B.
Note: [If d=n and G is the complete bipartite graph, then C is a product code of C_o with itself and the above algorithm reduces to the natural hard iterative decoding of product codes].

Here, the number of iterations, m is left(dfrac{(log{n})}{log(2-alpha)}right). In general, the above algorithm can correct a code word whose Hamming weight is no more than (dfrac{1}{2}).alpha N delta left((dfrac{delta}{2})-(dfrac{lambda}{d})right) =left((dfrac{1}{4}).alpha N (delta^2- O(dfrac{lambda}{d})right) for values of alpha < 1. Here, the decoding algorithm is implemented as a circuit of size O(N log{N} ) and depth O(log{N}) that returns the codeword given that error vector has weight less than alpha N delta^2 (1-epsilon)/4 .

Theorem

If G is a Ramanujan graph of sufficiently high degree, for any alpha < 1, the decoding algorithm can correct (dfrac{alpha delta_o^2}{4})(1-in) N errors, in  O(log {n}) rounds ( where the big- O notation hides a dependence on alpha). This can be implemented in linear time on a single processor; on n processors each round can be implemented in constant time.

Proof

Since the decoding algorithm is insensitive to the value of the edges and by linearity, we can assume that the transmitted codeword is the all zeros – vector. Let the received codeword be w. The set of edges which has an incorrect value while decoding is considered. Here by incorrect value, we mean 1 in any of the bits. Let w=w^0 be the initial value of the codeword, w^1, w^2,ldots, w^t be the values after first, second . . . t stages of decoding. Here, X^i={ein E|x_e^i =1}, and S^i ={vin V^i | E_v cap X^{i+1} !=emptyset}. Here S^i corresponds to those set of vertices that was not able to successfully decode their codeword in the i^{th} round. From the above algorithm S^1 <S^0 as number of unsuccessful vertices will be corrected in every iteration. We can prove that S^0>S^1>S^2>cdotsis a decreasing sequence. In fact, |S_{i+1}|<=(dfrac{1}{2-alpha})|S_i|. As we are assuming, alpha<1, the above equation is in a . So, when |S_i|<n, more than log_{2-alpha} n rounds are necessary. Furthermore, sum|S_i|=nsum(dfrac{1}{(2-alpha)^i})=O(n), and if we implement the i^{th} round in O(|S_i|) time, then the total sequential running time will be linear.

Drawbacks of Zemor’s algorithm

  1. It is lengthy process as the number of iterations m in decoder algorithm takes is [(log{ n})/(log(2-alpha))]
  2. Zemor’s decoding algorithm finds it difficult to decode erasures. A detailed way of how we can improve the algorithm is

given in.

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Source

http://wikipedia.org/