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IET Communications

Research Article

Serially concatenated scheme of polar codes ISSN 1751-8628

Received on 1st September 2019
Revised 20th April 2020
and the improved belief propagation decoding Accepted on 12th May 2020
E-First on 11th June 2020
algorithm doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2019.0887
www.ietdl.org

Yinyou Mao1, Dong Yang1, Xingcheng Liu1,2 , Yi Xie3

1School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
2School of Information Science, Xinhua College of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
3School of Data and Computer Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China

E-mail: isslxc@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Abstract: In this study, a serially concatenated scheme of polar codes with convolutional codes is proposed to improve the error
correction performance. The novel belief propagation (BP) decoding algorithm addresses two issues that are present in the
currently available BP decoding algorithms. The first issue is the poor performance of the BP decoding algorithms, in particular
the introduction of an error floor. The second is the component codes can only use systematic codes in the traditional
concatenated scheme of polar codes with convolutional codes, which inhibits the effective update of the prior information of the
redundant check bits. The proposed BP decoding algorithm is based on right-directed message processing, which effectively
improves the decoding performance. In addition, the proposed concatenated scheme extends the selection of component codes
from the systematic polar codes to the non-systematic polar codes. Hence, the areas of applications and the prior information of
information bits for polar codes are expanded and more effectively updated, respectively. The simulation results show that the
proposed scheme is much better than the traditional concatenated scheme, and the error floor is no longer introduced in terms
of the block error rate, while the storage and computational complexities have not increased obviously.

1 Introduction BP decoding algorithm is not obvious in comparison to an SC

As the only coding scheme that has been theoretically proven to
asymptotically achieve the channel capacity over arbitrary binary-
input discrete memoryless channels, polar codes have been used
for control channel coding schemes in 5G eMBB scenarios. The
polar codes, proposed by Arikan, have been proven to achieve the
Shannon channel capacity under the successive cancellation (SC)
decoding algorithm on the condition that the code length is
adequate (i.e. long enough) [1]. However, the error correction
performance of polar codes with finite lengths is poor with the SC
decoding algorithm. Therefore, on the basis of original SC
decoding, many improved decoding algorithms have been
proposed. By introducing the SC list decoding (SCL) algorithm,
the decoding performance of polar codes has been greatly
improved [2]. On the basis of the SCL decoding algorithm, the
decoding performance of polar codes can even exceed the LDPC
codes with the aid of the circular redundancy check (CRC) codes
[3].
Since the SCL decoding algorithm can achieve the performance
gain by increasing the number of alternative paths, it also is
considered as the max-likelihood decoding algorithm when the list
size is large enough. However, the SCL algorithms have
limitations, as their storage costs and computational complexities
rise quickly with an increasing list size. In order to reduce
complexity, SC bit flip (SC-Flip) decoding algorithms have been
proposed to solve the problem of error propagation in the SC
decoding algorithm by flipping the first or previous incorrect
information bits [4]. However, the SC-Flip algorithms can find and
flip the wrong information bits after an SC algorithm decoding
failure. If the code length is long, the SC-Flip algorithms have very
large latency, which limits their practical application.
Recently, the belief propagation (BP) decoding algorithms are
attracting more attention in the polar decoding algorithm [5]. A BP
decoding algorithm has the characteristics of parallelism and soft-
in-soft-out (SISO), which is more friendly to hardware design. As
the serial decoding algorithms have very large latencies, the BP
decoding algorithm has offered an appealing solution when the
code length is medium-long. However, the performance gain of a
decoding algorithm in an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN)
channel, and an error floor is present in BP decoding algorithms. In
order to improve this situation, a soft decision output of SC
decoding algorithm (SCAN) on the basis of BP decoding operation
has been proposed [6]. The SCAN algorithm retains the SISO
characteristics of the BP decoding algorithm, and adopts a serial
scheduling method like the SC decoding algorithm, which obtains
some performance gain compared with the BP decoding algorithm.
However, in comparison with the SCL decoding algorithm, the
SCAN algorithm has a greater delay; its relatively poor decoding
performance limits the application of the SCAN algorithm.
Similarly, for the sake of improving the decoding performance,
another belief propagation list (BPL) decoding algorithm has been
proposed [7]. After discovering the decoding performance of BP
algorithm is mainly influenced by the ‘cycle’ of the factor graph,
the BPL decoding algorithm transforms the original factor graph
into many different factor graphs with a permuted operation. This
enables the decoding calculation to be carried out in different factor
graphs. Although the BPL decoding algorithm can obtain the
correction performance of the near maximum likelihood decoding
algorithm when the list size is large, the storage demands and
computational complexity are also greatly increased, like the SCL
decoding algorithm.
In order to improve the decoding performance of polar codes
under the condition of limited code length, and also to further
balance the relationship between error correction performance and
complexity, the concatenated coding approach is considered as an
effective alternative. For example, the concatenation of polar codes
with RS codes has been proven to improve the bit error rate [8], but
the field selection of RS codes also enlarges significantly with the
increased length of polar codes. Subsequently, another channel
coding scheme, LDPC codes concatenated with polar codes, has
been proposed [9]. This concatenation scheme selects the LDPC
codes as outer codes, and concatenates some semi-polarised code
bits, then 0.3 dB performance gain is achieved over the original BP
decoding algorithm. Building on these results, a method of bit
mapping between LDPC codes and polar codes has been proposed
to further improve the performance [10]. This method could be

IET Commun., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 14, pp. 2309-2318 2309

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020

expressed that the most insufficiently polarised channel
corresponding to the information bit one by one match with the
highest-reliability variable node of LDPC codes, then the message
of the check node connected to this variable node is updated; by
doing this, message propagation between the reliable variable
nodes and unreliable variable nodes has been strengthened, and a
0.2 dB performance gain is achieved in comparison to its
predecessor.
In addition, the concatenation of polar codes with convolutional
codes has also received attention. There are two structures in which
polar codes have been concatenated with convolutional codes:
serial concatenated structure and parallel concatenated structure.
The convolutional codes are utilised as an outer code in the serial
concatenated structure [11], and a 0.4 dB performance gain is
obtained in comparison with the original BP decoding algorithm.
In the parallel concatenated structure, convolutional codes and
polar codes are taken as the component codes, the structure of
which is similar to that of the Turbo codes, leading to the
consequence that the performance of the parallel structure for polar
codes is further improved in comparison to the serial concatenated
structure [12]. However, both the concatenation structure only
apply systematic codes, which limits the application of non-
systematic codes. In the serial concatenated structure, the external
information after convolutional code decoding has not been utilised
effectively. Since the correction ability of convolutional codes is
not as good as polar codes, it makes it difficult for the
convolutional codes to correct errors in polar code decoding. In the
parallel concatenated structure, in addition to the occurrence of an
error floor and a performance loss due to puncture, the multi-block
structure has been designed to address channel transmission errors
that occur in the non-information bits of the code words. Although
the number of bit errors is reduced in a single block, this design
cuts the long code into short one. Consequently, the minimum
distance among code words decreases which leads to a negative
impact on the performance for the polar decoder; this design also
incurs additional hardware costs.
When the iterative decoding is used in concatenated codes, the
prior probability of the information bits changes in each iteration.
The maximum posterior probability decoding algorithm (such as
BCJR algorithm) can achieve the minimum bit error rate.
Therefore, this paper mainly investigates the design of polar codes
concatenated with convolutional codes. Considering the limitations
in the previous concatenated schemes between polar codes and
convolutional codes (performance, effective use of information
bits), we first improve the BP decoding algorithm of the polar
codes. We propose an improved BP decoding algorithm based on
right-directed message processing (RMP), which regards the right-
directed message of the source side information bits in the factor
graph as prior information. Through the processing of the right-
directed message, the problem in previously proposed BP decoding
algorithms (i.e. the prior information of the source side information
bits in the factor graph cannot be effectively updated in each
iteration) is solved. In order to avoid the error floor and the
performance loss caused by punching, a serial concatenation
scheme of polar codes and convolutional codes is adopted.
The major contributions of this paper are as follows:
• An improved BP decoding algorithm applied for concatenation
codes based on RMP is proposed, and the prior information of
the information sequence in polar codes is utilised effectively,
which makes the decision information present higher reliability
after iteration.
• A serial concatenated scheme between polar codes and
convolutional codes is designed, and non-system code is used as
component code, which extends the application from the
systematic code in previous concatenated scheme to the non-
systematic code.
• A SISO decoding algorithm related to the concatenated scheme
is designed, which better takes advantage of the prior
information and external information between the component
codes than the previous concatenated scheme, and the decoding
algorithm also avoids the drawback that the information of
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redundant bits cannot be effectively updated in the previous
concatenated scheme.
The structure of the paper is organised as follows In Section 2,
the polar codes and BP decoding algorithm are briefly introduced.
In Section 3, an improved BP decoding algorithm based on RMP is
given. The proposed serially concatenated scheme of polar codes
and convolutional codes, and the corresponding decoding
algorithm are discussed in Section 4. The performance analysis and
simulation results are shown in Sections 5 and 6, respectively.
Finally, the conclusion and future research plan are presented in
Section 7.
2 Preliminaries
2.1 Polar codes
For polar codes with a length of N = 2n (n is a positive integer), we
can obtain N polarised channels W N(1), W N(2), …, W N(N ) by using
identical independent copies of channel W to carry out channel
combining and splitting. When the number N tends to infinity,
some polarised channel capacities tend to the value one, whereas
other channel capacity values tend to zero. Assuming that the
capacity of the binary input symmetry channel W is I(W), when the
code length N tends to infinity, the number of polarised channels
that approach unit capacity is approximately K = N × I(W), and
the number of the channels whose capacity approaches zero is
approximately N × (1 − I(W)). In this case, the polarised channels
with their capacity tending to one can be treated as noiseless. These
polarised channels can be used to transmit information bits without
any coding, which is equivalent to the coding rate R = 1.
Meanwhile, the other channels with their capacity tending to zero
can be treated as the fully contaminated. Those channels could
transmit the ‘frozen’ bits that are both known to the sending and
receiving sides, which is equivalent to their coding rate R = 0.
Then, the polar codes can be encoded at the rate
R = N × I(W)/N = I(W), which means the polar codes can be
proven to achieve the channel capacity in theory. Specifically,
assume a polar code uses K information bits and (N − K) frozen
bits, then the code rate is R = K /N. Given a bit stream u = ui
and the code generator matrix G, the length of code word N, the
code word x = xi is obtained as x = uG uG. Let A be the set of
indices for the K information bits and Ac be the set of indices for
the N − K frozen bits in polar codes, the generator matrix G can be
designed as G = B N F 2⊗ n, where B N is a bit-reversal permutation
matrix [1], ⊗ n is the nth Kronecker power of F 2 and
1 0
F2 = .
1 1
Therefore, the formula for the encoder is
x = u AG (A) ⊕ u AcG (Ac), (1)
where u A is the information vector and u Ac is the frozen vector,
G (A) is a submatrix of G determined by the set A, and G (Ac) is a
submatrix of G determined by the set Ac.
2.2 Belief propagation decoding of polar codes
In the BP decoding algorithm, all of the code bits are decoded
iteratively by calculating the soft messages based on the factor
graph. The factor graph of polar codes with parameter (N, K)
consists of the n n = log2 N stage, N × (n − 1) nodes, where each
stage includes the same structure as Fig. 1, called the process
element (PE). Each node in the PE contains two types of
information: information passed from the left to the right, which is
called the right-directed message; and information passed from the
right to the left, which is the left-directed message. Both the right-
directed message and the left-directed message are in form of log-
likelihood ratio (LLR) to prevent the overflow during the BP
IET Commun., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 14, pp. 2309-2318
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020

Fig. 1 PE of the BP decoder
decoding. Before introducing the BP decoding method of polar
codes, some symbols that appear in the standard BP decoding
algorithm are defined:
• T: maximum iteration.
• t: iteration, {t 1 ≤ t ≤ T, t ∈ Z}.
• i: row index in factor graph, {i 1 ≤ i ≤ N, i ∈ Z}.
• j: column index in factor graph, { j 1 ≤ i ≤ n + 1, j ∈ Z}.
• Lit, j: information updated from right to left at the node (i, j), left-
directed message.
• Rit, j: information updated from left to right at the node (i, j),
right-directed message.
• ui: the ith decision code bit.
In the BP decoding process of polar codes, the decoder needs to
store the values of N × (n − 1) nodes according to calculating rules.
The information is updated from the right side to the left side in the
factor graph, and then from the left side to the right side. The right-
directed messages at the source sides are
0 if ui is an information bit
P(ui = 0)
Ri, 1 = ln = (2)
P(ui = 1) ∞ if ui is a frozen bit,
where P(ui) is a prior probability. Besides, the left-directed
message Li, n + 1 comes from the channel (i.e. it is the channel
information)
P(yi xi = 0)
Li, n + 1 = ln , (3)
P(yi xi = 1)
where P(yi xi) is the channel transfer probability of the input code
bit xi, and the output code bit yi.
The updated formula for the BP decoding algorithm of polar
codes in the PE is as follows [13]:
Lit, +j 1 = g(Lit, j + 1, Lit + N j, j + 1 + Rit + N j, j)
Lit ++ N1 j, j = Lit + N j, j + 1 + g(Lit, j + 1, Rit, j)
(4)
Rit, +j +1 1 = g(Rit, j, Lit + N j, j + 1 + Rit + N j, j + 1)
Rit ++ N1 j, j + 1 = Rit + N j, j + g(Lit, j + 1, Rit, j),
where Ni = 2n − i and g(x, y) = log((1 + xy)/(x + y)). Furthermore,
in order to simplify the computation, g(x, y) can also be
approximated as g(x, y) ≃ sign(x) × sign(y) × min ( x , y ). Finally,
the BP decoder stops when the stop condition of the decoding
iteration is met, and the decoder makes hard decisions according to
the left-directed message Li, 1 at the source side to give the
estimates of the information bits.
3 Improved BP decoding algorithm based on
right-directed message processing
The traditional BP decoding algorithm is mainly applied to
medium-long length code in the parallel configuration mode. It is
well known that more layers appeared in the factor graph with the
increase of code length, which also means the number of cycles in
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the factor graph increases significantly. The cycles in the factor
graph, especially the short cycles, seriously reduce the decoding
performance because their existence affects the independence of
the information exchange during iterations. The performance of the
BP decoding algorithm is substantively determined by the girth of
the factor graph, which refers to the length of the shortest cycle in
the graph. The longer the girth, the better the performance obtained
in BP decoding [14]. Therefore, the iterative calculation of BP
decoding algorithm is affected inevitably by the cycles, and the
consequence is:
1. its performance of long codes is inferior to the SC algorithm.
2. it brings about the occurrence of a serious error floor.
In order to solve the above drawbacks, we propose an improved
BP decoding algorithm based on RMP. We observe that within
each iterative calculation in the BP decoding algorithm, the value
of the right-directed message of information bits in source side is
always zero. This means the prior information of the information
bits in the source side is not updated. Inspired by the concatenated
code designs [12], we try to update the prior information of the
information bits in the source side on the basis of confirming all or
part of the information bits. The purpose is to consolidate or
strengthen the correcting function of the right-directed message in
the process of the BP decoding calculation, simultaneously reduce
the number of error nodes and the wrong cycle (containing the
error nodes) in the factor graph.
Our method is that the multi-CRC check code is inserted into
the information sequence, then the sub-segment sequence that is
correctly decoded with the BP decoder with the aid of the CRC
check is selected and their right-directed message is strengthened.
Meanwhile, for the sub-segment sequence which does not pass
through the CRC check, the bit selection is operated on it based on
the absolute likelihood value obtained by the BP decoding
calculation. Then these selected bits are assigned with the priori
information according to the set threshold value. In addition, taking
into account the effect of a wrong cycle and the complexity
brought by increasing the number of layers in the factor graph
when the code lengths rise, we clear the value of nodes in the
factor graph except the first layer nodes and the last layer nodes.
Then the effect of error information propagation caused by error
nodes and wrong cycles is eliminated fundamentally.
3.1 What-if validation
We first examine the performance of the BP decoding algorithm
under the premise that some of the information bits are known.
Inspired by the previous work [15], we randomly select different
lengths of information bits (e.g. 20, 40, 80), and the positions of
these information bits. These information bits are given the value
of their right-directed message, ∞ or −∞, according to their
specific value of zero or one. Then, the iterative decoding
calculation is performed, and the performance under different
numbers of known information bits is obtained. The premise is
mainly to simulate the scenario that partial correct information bits
are found with the aid of the CRC check when BP decoding fails.
Then, the changed prior information of these information bits
influences the decoding performance. Therefore, the premise-based
principle is similar to the bit-strengthening algorithm [15]. It is
worth noting that the premise, in which some information bits are
known, is different from decreasing the code rate. This is because
the positions of some known information bits are randomly
selected, which means these positions are not fixed, while the
operation of decreasing the code rate always removes the bits with
less reliability, the positions of which can be pre-determined.
As shown in Fig. 2, the more the number of known information
bits, the better the performance of the BP decoding algorithm.
When the number of the known information bits is 160, the BP
decoding algorithm can achieve a 1 dB performance gain in
processing the right-directed message in comparison to the original
BP decoding algorithm, with the BER = 10−5. This experiment
reveals that choosing a method that enables the acquisition of more
correct information bits and changes the right-directed message of
2311

Fig. 2 (1024, 512), BER comparison under the assumptions that different
numbers of information bits are known
Fig. 3 Comparison of error probability and average likelihood ratio for
unfrozen bit-channels of a (1024, 512) polar code operated at SNR=2.5 dB
(a) The average error probability of unfrozen bit-channels, (b) The average absolute
LLR of unfrozen bit-channels
these information bits at the source side can improve the
performance of the BP decoding algorithm.
3.2 Error analysis of BP decoding algorithm
In order to obtain a higher number of correct information bits
within the decoding process and increase the reliability of the right-
directed message for the information bits, we study the relationship
between the error probability of each information bit and the
absolute LLR at the final decision in the original BP decoding
algorithm. We first calculate the average absolute LLR of the
erroneous information bits in the ith individual error block
n Note that the threshold Ωth and Γth in Algorithm 1 (Fig. 4) are
∑keb= 1 LLRk
μ̄ie =
neb
where neb is the number of erroneous bits in an erroneous block and
LLRk is the absolute left-directed message of the kth incorrectly
decoded information bit at the source side. Then, the average log-
likelihood value of the incorrectly decoded information bits in one
block is
N
∑i =eb 1 μ̄ie
μe =
Neb
where Neb is the number of erroneous blocks. Similarly, the
average log-likelihood value of the correctly decoded information
bits in the ith error block can be obtained as
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n
∑ j cb= 1 LLR j
μ̄ic = (7)
ncb
where ncb is the number of correctly decoded information bits in
the ith erroneous block and LLR j is the absolute left-directed
message of the jth correctly decoded information bit. Then the
average likelihood value of the correctly decoded information bits
in one block is
N
∑i =eb 1 μ̄ic
μc = (8)
Neb
According to the law of large numbers, when the number of the
erroneous block, Neb, is set to a large value, we can make sure that
the absolute likelihood values of μe_llr and μc_llr are very accurate.
Taking SNR=2.5 dB as an example, if the Neb is set to 10,000, the
block length N is set to 1024, and the code rate is 0.5, we can
obtain μe_llr = 4.97012, μc_llr = 41.0748. Therefore, when a bit is
decoded in error, the absolute likelihood ratio usually has a small
value. By contrast, if a bit is correctly decoded, the absolute
likelihood ratio is usually large. Note that the obtained average
value of the erroneous bits and correct bits in one block: μe_llr and
μc_llr, could be used as the threshold in the next section.
The relationship between the average error probability and the
average absolute likelihood ratio of information bits is shown in
Fig. 3. This relationship reveals a higher error probability of
information bit corresponding to a lower average absolute
likelihood ratio.
3.3 Design of improved BP decoding algorithm
Based on the above analysis, we propose an improved BP decoding
algorithm for polar codes based on RMP. The improved algorithm
is designed to update the prior information of the BP decoder to
obtain a higher number of correctly decoded information bits and
enhance the reliability of decisions based on the information bits.
Here we use a CRC check code to divide the information sequence
into multiple segments. Adding CRC protection to each piece of
the information sequence can greatly improve the decision
accuracy of the information bits. Multi-CRC, originally designed
for the SCL decoding algorithm, is mainly applied to reduce the
complexity of the SCL algorithm [16]. In contrast, this paper
uniquely proposes the use of multi-CRC in the BP decoding
algorithm, and the purpose is to update the prior information of the
BP decoder and improve the performance.
The specific design process for the algorithm is shown in
Algorithm 1 (see Fig. 4). If all of the information sequences passed
the CRC checks in each iteration, the decoding by the BP decoding
algorithm is regarded as successful, and the early stop iteration is
also applied. However, if any information sequence does not pass
the CRC check after undergoing the maximum number of iteration,
a different RMP in the source side of factor graph is carried out.
(5) given under different channel conditions. For example, Ωth = 50
and Γth = 5 are set in SNR=2.5 dB according to the previous
analysis.
As the information sequence is segmented by CRC codes in the
proposed BP algorithm, it is necessary to investigate the
relationship between the number of segments (NOS) and the
decoding performance. For the entire code word sequence, the
ideal decoding error probability is
M
(6) Pe_id(γ, M) = 1 − ∏ pm(γ) (9)
m=1
where pm(γ) is the correct decoding probability of the mth segment
at SNR = γ and M is the setting for the NOS. Note that the length
of each segment is the same after the information sequence is
segmented uniformly by the CRC code. Suppose that in the BSC
channel, the error probability is p ∈ [0, 1/2], then the error
IET Commun., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 14, pp. 2309-2318
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020
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probability that the code word CM has not been detected by the
CRC code is
K+L
Pud CM , p = ∑ Ai pi(1 − p)K +L−i
(10)
i=1

where Ai(1 ≤ i ≤ K + L) denotes the weight distribution of the

code word CM , L = M × l represents the total length of the M-
segment CRC code and l is the length of each CRC code. Similarly,
K = M × k represents the total length of information sequence and
k is the length of the information sequence for each segment. For
all p in (10), if we have

1 2K − 1 1
Pud CM , p ≤ Pud CM , = K +L ≃ L, (11)
2 2 2

then the lower bound of the correct probability verified by the CRC
code is

2K − 1
Pcd CM , p = 1 − Pud CM , p ≥ 1 − . (12)
2K + L

For each segment of the code word, there are

1 1
Pud Cm, p ≤ Pud Cm, ≃ l, (13)
2 2

2k − 1
Pcd Cm, p = 1 − Pud Cm, p ≥ 1 − . (14)
2k + l
Fig. 4 Algorithm 1: improved BP decoding based on RMP
Unlike the CA-SCL decoding algorithm, in which multiple
paths require only one correct path [17], it is necessary for the
segmented BP decoding algorithm to ensure that all of the segment
code word sequences are decoded correctly at the same time. This
ensures the whole code word is decoded correctly. Therefore, the
probability that the whole code word is correct is
M
Pc(γ, M) = ∏ pm(γ)Pr I p x1k(m) ∈ Cm
m=1
M
= ∏ pm(γ)Pcd Cm, p
m=1
M
(15)
2k − 1
≥ ∏ pm(γ) 1 − k + l
m=1 2
M
1
≳ ∏ pm(γ) 1 −
m=1 2l
Fig. 5 BLER comparison of improved BP decoding algorithm under
where I p x1k(m) is defined as a segmented sub-block of the whole different segments, using CRC-4, (1024,512)
codeword sequence and x1k(m) is the code bit from 1 to k in the
mth sub-block, Pr I p x1k(m) ∈ Cm represents that the segmented As M increases, it can be observed from (9) and (16) that the
second term declines very rapidly, which makes the error
sub-block in a codeword sequences is verified correctly through the
probability Pe(γ, M) decrease. The first term in (16), in comparison
CRC check. Finally, the upper bound of the error probability of a
multi-CRC segment in the proposed BP decoding algorithm can be with the multiple paths in the SCL algorithm [16], demonstrates the
expressed as value of pm(γ) is larger than the value of the entire path decoding
correct in the SCL algorithm. Accordingly, when the rising value
Pe(γ, M) = 1 − Pc(γ, M) of M is limited, an incremental increase of Pe_id(γ, M) is not
M sufficient to affect the reduction of the second term in (16).
1 M
≲ 1 − (1 − ) ∏ pm(γ) However, when M increases to a certain extent, the value of
2l m = 1 Pe_id(γ, M) becomes large enough to increase the error probability
M
(16) Pe(γ, M). Therefore, it can be concluded that the value of M needs
≲ 1 − 1 − (M)2− l ∏ pm(γ) to be carefully considered; a reasonable value needs to be chosen
m=1 according to the actual situation.
M
Fig. 5 shows the performance for the (1024, 512) polar codes of
≲ Pe_id(γ, M) + (M)2− l ∏ pm(γ) . the improved BP decoding algorithm for different NOS. Note that
m=1
the size of frozen bits is decreasing with the growing NOS. For
example, assuming the NOS is 4, the size of frozen bits is 496
since the length of source information bits is 512. As can be seen,

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when the NOS reaches eight, the performance under the improved
algorithm is the best. However, when the NOS exceeds eight, the
performance begins to decline.
It is worth noting that in comparison with the post-processing
BP decoding algorithm [18], the proposed algorithm in this paper is
nominally the same as the RMP while the post-processing used as
‘right message’. However, it has essential differences in the core
idea and processing method:

1. The idea of a post-processing algorithm is to treat the ‘right

message’ as a perturbation [18]. ‘This could be understood as
biasing or partially freezing the information bits towards one
direction or another’ [18], which means different error types
are corrected by adjusting the ‘right message’ in different
directions. While this article regards the right-directed message
as prior information, the values of the right-directed message
are given directly by a CRC-assisted check and the decoded
likelihood value. Hence, there is no bias or adjustments for Fig. 6 BLER comparison between BP, SCAN, post-processing and
right-directed message in different directions. proposed algorithm for (1024,512) polar code
2. The post-processing algorithm needs to prejudge the error type.
Once the error types are not judged correctly, the processing
method of the right-directed message may also be wrong. In
contrast, the algorithm proposed in this paper does not
prejudge the error type.
3. The post-processing algorithm does not consider the effect of a Fig. 7 Serial concatenated encoder structure of polar codes and
‘cycle’ in factor graph. The right-directed message in the bias convolutional codes
and adjusting process may fall into the ‘error cycle’, and
cannot play a corrective role. The algorithm proposed in this Table 1 Optimal convolutional codes for rate R = 3/4 [19]
article initially sets the information for all of the nodes in the v h(3) h(2) h(1) h(0) d f ree Ad f ree γ, dB
factor graph to zero; in addition, the information of the nodes 4 33 25 37 31 4 2 4.77
at the source side and channel side is retained, which directly
5 47 73 57 75 5 7 5.74
eliminates the impact of the ‘error cycle’.
6 107 135 133 141 6 27 6.53
4. The post-processing algorithm needs to carry out the
corresponding bias or perturbation because of the different 7 211 341 315 267 6 5 6.53
error types, which is not convenient for a hardware ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮
implementation. In contrast, the right-directed message in this
article is given directly by using the CRC check and the
likelihood value of the decision, which is more amicable to a
hardware implementation.

Finally, we set the NOS M = 8 and select CRC-4 to minimise

the code rate loss, then compared the block error rate (BLER) of
the proposed decoding algorithm to alternatives in the literature. As
shown in Fig. 6, the construction methods of the polar codes for all
of the decoding algorithms are based on the Monte Carlo
algorithm. It can be seen that the proposed algorithm in this paper
has gain 0.5 dB in comparison to the original BP decoding at
BLER = 10−5. In addition, the performance of the proposed RMP
is better than the post-processing BP algorithm and SCAN
decoding algorithm, demonstrating a decoding performance very
close to the SCL (L=32) decoding algorithm.
4 Serial concatenated scheme of polar codes
In order to solve the limitations in the traditional concatenated
schemes of polar codes and convolutional codes (such as the error
floor in the parallel concatenated scheme), a serial concatenated
scheme of polar codes and convolutional codes is proposed in this
paper. Different from the previous serial scheme that adopts
convolutional codes as the outer code [11], this paper proposes the
use of polar codes as the outer code which makes better use of the
prior information represented in information bits. The coding and
decoding schemes are provided. The design structure of encoding
is shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 shows the concatenated code composed by the polar
codes with the code rate 2/3 as the outer code and the
convolutional codes with the code rate 3/4 as the inner code. The
polar codes could use the systematic or non-systematic codes. To
further distinguish this work from the previous concatenated
scheme that uses the systematic code, the non-systematic polar
codes are used here as the component code. The source sequence
has been segmented by the CRC code before entering the polar
Fig. 8 Serial concatenated encoder structure of polar codes and
convolutional codes
encoder. At the same time, some optimal convolutional codes are
constructed for selection (refer to Table 1 [19]).
As is shown in Table 1, the constraint length of each
convolutional code v, free distance d f ree, the number of nearest
code words Ad f ree and soft-decision asymptomatic coding gain γ are
listed. These optimal codes can be implemented through a non-
systematic feed-forward coding scheme or a recursive systematic
coding scheme.
On the receiver, the decoding method of the designed
concatenated code is given. The decoder of the concatenated code
consisted of two SISO component decoders, as shown in Fig. 8; the
decoding operation is iteratively achieved between the two
component decoders, where Y is the channel output vector, that is,
the likelihood information after demodulation. At the beginning,
the prior information of the convolutional codes is zero. After the
BCJR decoding algorithm or max-log-map decoding algorithm of
the convolutional codes operates, the generated external
ext
information Lconv as the input information for the BP decoder of
polar codes. Here, the improved BP decoding algorithm based on
RMP is applied in the polar decoder, and the value of the right-
directed message is set in source side. Then, the polar decoder
completes the decoding operation and outputs the information of
rightmost side nodes in the factor graph. This information is the
sum of the left-directed message and the right-directed message of
layer (n + 1) in the factor graph, and we define it

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LX i + RX i = Li, n + 1 + Ri, n + 1, where Li, n + 1 is the left-directed message where (19) is the weight enumeration of the component polar codes
of the ith rightmost side node and Ri, n + 1 is the right-directed which contains φp concatenated errors and (20) is the weight
message of the ith rightmost side node in the factor graph, enumeration of the component convolutional codes which contains
respectively. LX + RX represents the output vector of polar decoder φc concatenated errors, respectively. Replacing (19) and (20) into
as the prior information of the convolutional codes. This (17), we have
information is provided to the convolutional decoder through the
interleaver, and a decoding calculation iteration is completed. Nf Nf
When the stop iterative conditions are met (e.g. the maximum Kc φpmax φcmax
φp φc
number of iterations is reached or all of the segmented CRC checks
spc
Ad, ω ≲ ∑ ∑ ∑ Kc
pass), the decoder of the concatenated code outputs the estimated ϑ = ϑpmin φp = 1 φc = 1 (21)
source sequence u. ϑ
× Aδp, φp, ϑ Aϑc , φc, ω,
5 Performance analysis
5.1 Error performance analysis Note that

For the polar codes with parameter (p, k), the code rate is R1 = k/ p, Nf Nf
φ
and the convolutional codes with parameter (n, p), the rate is < and N f = Kc / p .
φ φ!
R2 = p/n. Then we define K p and Kc to represent the length of
input sequences of the polar codes and convolutional codes,
For the denominator in (21), we have
respectively. K p ≜ N f × k and Kc ≜ N f × p, where N f is the
number of frames. The rate of the concatenated code is Kc ϑ ϑ
Kc − ϑ + 1 Kc
R = R1R2 = k/n. The way of interleaving is uniform. For the polar > > ,
codes, the number of input sequences with the weight δ is ϑ ϑ! ϑ ϑ!ϑ

Kp then we combine (21) with (18) and could obtain the upper bound
, of the analysed serial concatenated code
δ
K
1
c
ωREb
K p ω =∑
and the number of the encoded polar codewords is represented by Pb < exp −
Aδp, ϑ. Correspondingly, for the convolutional codes, there are ω
N0
min
Kp Kc φpmax φcmax
Kc × ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ δ Kc φ p + φc − ϑ (22)
δ = δmin ϑ = ϑpmin φp = 1 φc = 1
ϑ
ϑϑϑ!
× Aδp, φp, ϑ Aϑc , φc, ω .
types of input sequences with weight of input sequences ϑ, and the p
φp + φc
× φp !φc !
number of the encoded convolutional codewords is represented by
Aϑc , ω. Therefore, for serially concatenated codes with uniform The formula (22) is much complex, if the quadruple summation
interleaving, the number of kinds to the output codewords is could be seen as the factor for exponent item in second row of (22),
φ +φ −d
then the exponent item of Kc p c has the maximum influence
Kc
Aδp, ϑ Aϑc , ω to the formula. When SNR is very high, the mainly investigation
Aϑspc
,ω = ∑ Kc
,
(17) are the maximum error number φp and φc. Meanwhile, only
ϑ = ϑpmin
ϑ consider ω = ωmin in the high SNR, we have
φp + φc − ϑ ≤ 2 − ϑpmin [20]. Hence (22) is approximate to
where ϑpmin is the minimum weight of outer polar codes. Now we
discuss the upper bound of the concatenated code. According to the 2 − ϑpmin ωminREb
Pb < Cδ Kc exp − , (23)
analysis of SCCC [20], we have N0

Kc Kp K K φ φ
1 where C ≜ ∑δ =p δmin ∑ϑ c= ϑpmin ∑φppmax
= 1 ∑φc = 1 represents the factor
cmax

K p ω =∑ ∑
Pb < δAϑspc
, ωexp −ωREb /N 0 , (18)
ω min δ = δmin of quadruple sum calculation in (22). As can be seen from (23), the
performance gain could be obtained on the condition of ϑpmin > 2,
where ωmin is the minimum weight of the serial concatenated and the upper bound decreases exponentially with the growth of
codewords, δmin is the minimum weight of an input sequence that minimum code weight of polar codes. Similarly, in the low SNR, if
generates a non-correctable error event. For the constituent polar the encoding way of convolutional codes is feedback encode,
code, an error event is also a polar codeword. Let us define the φc = ⌊ϑ/2⌋, then φp + φc − ϑ = − ⌊(ϑpmin − 1)/2⌋, the
number of concatenated errors is φ, then the number of component concatenated codes could obtain the interleaving gain
codewords is represented by Aδ, φ, ω. Thus, we can get the weight (Kc)−⌊(ϑpmin − 1)/2⌋ [19]. Therefore, we can get the conclusion that
enumeration of the serially concatenated component code which the larger code distance of outer code, the better performance. It is
contains φ concatenated errors if the number of frames is N f [21]: well known that the minimum code distance (hamming weight) of
polar code is ϑpmin = mini ∈ A 2ωt(i) , where ωt(i) represents code
φpmax
Nf distance of the ith row in generating matrix [14]. By contrast,
Aδp, ϑ ≲ ∑ φp
Aδp, φp, ϑ, (19) according to the free distance of convolutional codes, we have
φp = 1
dfree, cc ≥ dmin, cc. Consequently, considering from the performance
gain, polar codes are better suited for outer codes than
and
convolutional codes in the low SNR since ϑpmin ≫ dfree, cc. In
φcmax
Nf addition, for the medium-long code, the value of mini ∈ A 2ωt(i) is
Aϑc , ω ≲ ∑ φc
Aϑc , φc, ω, (20) large, it can be observed from (23) that the error floor of the
φc = 1 concatenated code is extremely low in the high SNR since
Kc 2 − ϑpmin tend to 0.

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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020

5.2 Convergence analysis
We investigate the convergence performance for the designed
concatenated code with the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT)
chart on the condition of selecting a large-length, uniform
interleaving device. The basic idea is to determine the convergence
of the decoder by analysing the relationship between the input and
output via the mutual information for each component decoder. For
the concatenated code, every component decoder has an extrinsic
information curve. The criteria for judgment are that if the two
curves do not intersect, the concatenated code is considered to
converge at the given SNR, and vice versa [22]. It has been proven
that for a large-length interleaving device in an AWGN channel,
the prior information I pr and channel state information Ics are
uncorrelated [22], and the probability density function of the
external information Iex becomes close to the Gaussian distribution
as the number of iterations increases [23]. Accordingly, it is
possible to calculate the mutual information in a similar way for
parallel concatenated codes [24]. The difference is that the outer
component decoder does not have the input channel state
information Ics in serial concatenated codes. Using a statistical
average algorithm [24], we get the mutual information curves
between the convolutional codes and polar codes in Fig. 9. The
traditional decoding algorithm for the convolutional codes is the
Log-Map or the BCJR algorithm; the proposed improved BP
decoding algorithm is used for the polar codes. The interleaving
length is 11472, the length of polar outer codes is 1024 with a code
rate 2/3, and the length of convolutional inner codes is
h(3)h(2)h(1)h(0) = 211, 341, 315, 267 with code rate 3/4 (refer to Table
1 ).
According to the conclusions reported in relevant literature, the
area mismatch factor between the two EXIT curves directly causes
the rate loss corresponding to the capacity [25]. So we have:
R = R1R2 = ρI(X; Y)/n ≤ ρC, where ρ is an area mismatch factor
between two curves in the EXIT chart (i.e. the rate loss) [25].
Hence, the smaller the gap between the two curves, the less the rate
loss in the concatenated codes. As shown in Fig. 9, a comparison
with the parallel concatenated structure [12], the gap of the two
component code EXIT curves for the polar outer codes and
convolutional inner codes in a serial configuration is smaller than
the gap in the parallel configuration. This indicates the rate loss of
Fig. 9 EXIT curves for convolutional codes and polar codes with total
code rate 1/2
Table 2 Decoding complexities of different concatenated
schemes about polar codes
Concatenated schemes Complexity
proposed scheme max
O(Ispc (IRMPKlog K + 2N ⋅ 2v))
k
conv-polar O(niter(Nlog N + 2K ⋅ 2 o ⋅ 2v))
parallel polar-conv (IInnerlogN p + 2v + 1))
max max
O(IPcc
RS-polar O(N(log N)2loglog N + Nlog N)
polar-ldpc O(IBP(2Ndv) + Klog K)
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the proposed serial concatenated code is less than the parallel
concatenated code.
5.3 Decoding complexity analysis
It is well known that the decoding complexity of convolutional-
polar codes is O(niter(Nlog N + 2K ⋅ 2ko ⋅ 2v)), where O(niter Nlog N)
is the BP decoding complexity of polar codes, K and ko are the total
information bits and the information bits for the outer code of the
conv-polar codes, respectively [11]. However, the decoding
complexity of the proposed concatenated codes is slightly higher
than conv-polar codes since the iterations involve two component
codes. The total complexity of the proposed concatenated codes is
max
O(Ispc (IRMPKlogK + 2N ⋅ 2v)), where v is the constraint length of
the convolutional codes, IRMP is the average iteration number of the
improved BP decoding algorithm based RMP. Note that the value
of IRMP usually turns small with the increase of SNR. Therefore,
the complexity of the designed concatenated codes is even lower
than the conv-polar codes in the high SNR. As is shown in Table 2,
comparing with the major concatenated scheme, the complexity of
the proposed scheme is also lower than the parallel concatenated
scheme of polar-convolution [12] and the RS-polar concatenated
scheme [8].
6 Simulation results
In this section, we present the decoding performance of the BLER
for the proposed concatenated code over the AWGN channel. The
investigated code rate of concatenated code is R = 1/2. For the
outer polar codes, the code rate is R1 = 2/3, information bits are
protected by multi-segment CRC-4, and the segmentation is
uniform. The modulation is BPSK, and the construction of the
polar codes is achieved with a density evolution [26]. The max
iteration number of the outer BP decoder is set to 60, which is the
same as the most of the BP decoding algorithm [11, 15, 27], and
the max iteration number between BP decoder and BCJR decoder
is set to 10, which is the same as that of the parallel concatenated
scheme [12]. Note that in the usual decoding process except for the
low SNR region, the actual iteration number is far less than the
max iteration number since the early termination could be initiated
when the multi-CRC check is satisfied. Then, for the parameter of
code length and rate (1024, 0.5), the NOS is set to M = 8, the
length of the information bits is K1 = 544 (include the CRC code)
in the length of outer code word N1 = 768; puncturing method
based on the the row weight of generate matrix and the channel
reliability of code bits is utilised [28, 29]. Meanwhile, for the inner
convolutional codes, the code rate is R = 3/4, the structure
h(3)h(2)h(1)h(0) = 211, 341, 315, 267 is used, and the feedback
encoding technology is applied. Specifically, the systematic
feedback encoder here refers to a convolutional code with an
arbitrary code rate R = (n − 1)/n, can be described by specifying n
parity check polynomials h(0)(D), h(1)(D), …, h(n − 1)(D), or n
equivalent parity sequences h(0), h(1), …, h(n − 1).
The performance comparison between the proposed
concatenated code and the traditional polar codes is displayed in
Fig. 10. As shown in the figure, the decoding performance of the
proposed concatenated code outperforms the state-of-the-art SISO
decoding algorithm [27], and outperforms the CA-SCL decoding
algorithm to some extent. Specifically, when compared with the
decoding algorithm of SCL (L=32) [2], the decoding performance
of the proposed concatenated codes obtain a gain of 0.8 dB at
BLER = 10−6.
Fig. 11 shows the BLER comparison between the proposed
concatenated code and other concatenated code for polar codes. In
comparison with the shown concatenated schemes, the proposed
concatenated scheme outperforms the parallel concatenated scheme
by 0.5 dB at BLER = 10−5. Note that the parallel concatenated
scheme is composed of 16 blocks of (128,64) SPC and (13,15)
RSC with the rate 1/2, and the iteration number between the
different component codes is set to 8. The performance of the
proposed concatenated code is also better than the latest
IET Commun., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 14, pp. 2309-2318
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020

Fig. 10 Performance comparison of each decoding scheme for polar codes (1024, 0.5)
Fig. 11 Performance comparison of each decoding scheme for polar codes (2048, 0.5)
concatenated code with the Polar-LDPC. The reason of obtaining
the better performance is due to the lower code rate loss of the
serial concatenated scheme (in comparison to the parallel
concatenated scheme), and the ‘error cycle’ is eliminated in the
design of the BP decoding algorithm of polar codes.
7 Conclusion and future work
In this paper, we designed an improved BP decoding algorithm
based on RMP that uses the right-directed message in the source
side as prior information. The proposed algorithm addresses
deficiencies in the traditional polar codes and convolutional codes
concatenated schemes. By analysing the characteristics of the SISO
decoding algorithm for polar codes, a serial concatenated scheme
which adopts polar codes as the outer codes is proposed. The
improved BP decoding algorithm is successfully applied to the
scheme. In addition, the decoding complexity is given, and the
performance bound of concatenated code is analysed theoretically.
Furthermore, the convergence performance of the proposed scheme
is also given through the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT)
chart. The simulation results show that the performance of the
proposed algorithm provides a significant improvement in
comparison with previous concatenated schemes reported in the
literatures.
The future work is to carry out the research of the designed BP
decoding algorithm under the condition of using non-uniform
segments by the CRC code. According to the different polarisation
effects between the information bits, the CRC code can be inserted
non-uniformly, which could distinguish the correct and incorrect
bits more accurately in the information sequence. Hence, the prior
information of the information bits can be more reliable, and the
decoding performance can be further improved. In addition, we
plan to study the application in the BP list decoding algorithm, and
explore the performance improvement of the concatenated code
after paying a certain spatial complexity.
IET Commun., 2020, Vol. 14 Iss. 14, pp. 2309-2318
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020
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8 Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under grant nos. 61873290, 61972431 and
61572534, in part by the Special Project of Promoting Economic
Development in Guangdong Province under grant
GDME-2018D004 and in part by the Science and Technology
Program of Guangzhou, China under grant no. 202002030470.
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© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020