Designs of Bhattacharyya Parameter in the
Construction of Polar Codes
Shengmei Zhao Peng Shi
Institute of Signal Processing & Institute of Signal Processing &
Transmission Transmission
Nanjing University of P& T Nanjing University of P& T
Nanjing, China Nanjing, China
Abstract—Polar codes, introduced by Arikan recently, can
achieve capacity of symmetric channel with low complexity
successive cancellation decoding strategy. In this paper, we
design efficient Bhattacharyya Parameters in Polar codes
construction for common communications channels. We
present the satisfactory recursive formula for the four
conventional channels and discuss the initial value of each
recursive equations. Numerical simulations show that Polar
codes are channel-specific designing codes; they can approach
their capacities by selecting the frozen bits in our proposed
Bhattacharyya Parameter calculating method.
Keywords-Polar codes; channel polarization; capacity;
Bhattacharyya parameter.
I. INTRODUCTION
Polar codes were proposed by Arikan [1] in 2007, they
have been proven to be capacity-achieving codes for Binary
Symmetric Channel (BSC), and then for arbitrary binary-input
discrete memoryless channels (DMCs) [2], with low-
complexity encoding and decoding method. Since Polar codes
demonstrate their versatility, they attract a lot of attention after
they are proposed [3-13].
Polar codes take advantages of channel Polarization, which
is a method, for constructing codes of capacity-achieving
channel for DMCs [1]. Based on this conception, Korada and
Urbanke then established the suitability for source coding to
achieve the fundamental limits in lossy source
compression with binary reproduction alphabets [3,4]. Later, a
generalization to a broader class of reproduction alphabets was
established [5]. In addition, non-binary input alphabets of Polar
codes are investigated, such that Reed-Solomon codes and
algebraic geometry core are selected as the kernel of Polar
codes [6]. Considering both source and channel coding, the
design of Polar codes for channel and source coding was
addressed in [7-9]. Following these results, the interest on
channel Polarization and Polar codes has been extended to
problems with multiple sources and channels, for example,
lossless compression of correlated sources, source compression
with side information at the decoder, transmission over
broadcast channels [4], multiple access channels [4,10], or the
relay channel [11]. Furthermore, Polar codes find their
application in wiretap channels to achieve the secrecy capacity
[12,13].
978-1-4244-6252-0/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE
Bei Wang
Institute of Signal Processing &
Transmission
Nanjing University of P & T
Nanjing, China
It is the unique construction method of Polar codes so that
they could have the capacity-achieving property. This is named
channel Polarization. There are two important parameters,
including the symmetric capacity and the Bhattacharyya
parameter for channel Polarization, are used as measures of
rate and reliability respectively. Between them, the
Bhattacharyya parameter Z(W) is an upper bound on the
probability of maximum-likelihood (ML) decision error when
the channel is used only once to transmit a 0 and 1. Intuitively,
channels with Z(W)≤ε are almost noiseless, while channel with
Z(W)≥1-ε are almost pure-noise channel for a given 0≤ε≤ 1 [1].
Therefore, the Bhattacharyya parameter of channel determines
the construction of Polar code, it plays an important part in the
construction of Polar codes.
In this paper, we design different Bhattacharyya parameter
for common communication channels, and compare the
performance of Polar codes in the same communication
channel with different formula. Besides, we discuss the effect
of initial value of Bhattacharyya parameter on system’s
performance, and propose a scheme for the construction of
Polar codes for different communication channels.
II. POLAR CODES AND THEIR CONSTRUCTION
This section provides a concise overview of the
groundbreaking work of Arikan and others on Polar codes and
channel Polarization. Let
⎡1 0 ⎤
G2 = ⎢ ⎥ (1)
⎣1 1 ⎦
and G2⊗m denotes the m-th Kronecker power of G2. For
simplicity and generality, let W be a symmetric binary-input
DMC, and V=(V1,V2,…Vn) be a block of n=2m bits chosen
randomly from {0,1}n. The encoding is an operation as,
X = VPn G2⊗ m (2)
where Pn is a n×n bit-reversal permutation matrix. Finally, X is
transmitted through n independent copies of W. Arikan [1]
considered that the n channels could be “seen” by each of the n
individual bits V1,V2,…Vn as they undergo the above
transformation, called the bit-channels. It is shown that as m
grows, the bit-channels start polarizing, they approach either a
noiseless channel (called good bit-channel) or a pure-noise
channel (named bad bit-channel). The fraction of bit-channels
with no noise approaches the capacity of W as n→∞. Here, the
good and bad for bit-channels is determined by the
Bhattacharyya parameter of W, which is defined as,
Z (W ) = ∑ W ( y | 0)W ( y | 1)
y
It is obvious Z (W ) is the erasure probability for binary erasure
channel (BEC).
The basic idea of Polar codes is to create a coding system
where one can access each bit-channel individually and send
data only through those for its Bhattacharyya parameter is near
0. For a given N, where N = 2n for n ≥0, the encoding algorithm
is expressed as,
x1N = u1N GN
where GN is the generator matrix of order N, G N = G2⊗n . For A
an arbitrary subset of {1,…,N}, the above formula may be
written as,
x1N = u A GN ( A) ⊕ u Ac GN ( Ac )
where GN(A) denotes the sub-matrix of GN formed by rows
with indices in A. Commonly, Polar code is identified by
(N,K,A,uAc), where K is the code dimension and specifies the
size of A, the ratio K/N is code rate, A is information set and uAc
is named frozen bits. Polar codes will be specified by giving a
particular rule for the selection of the information set A.
Definitely, Polar codes are channel-specific designs that mean
a Polar code for one channel may not be a Polar code for
another.
On the other hand, the decoding is to generate an estimate
uˆ1N of u1N , given knowledge of A, uAc and y1N. Since the
decoder can avoid errors in the frozen part, the real decoding
task is to generate an estimate û A of u A . Successive
cancellation algorithm is usually employed. One can generate
the estimate by the following method,
⎧⎪u if i ∈ Ac
u i = ⎨ i N i−1
⎪⎩ hi ( y1 , uˆ1 ) if i∈A
and the decision function hi is defined as,
⎧0 if WN(i) ( y1N , u1i−1 | 0) >WN(i) ( y1N , u1i−1 |1)
hi = ⎨
⎩1 otherwise
For any BDMC W and any choice of Polar codes, the
probability of block error for a Polar code is proved to be,
Pe ( N , K , A, u Ac ) ≤ ∑ Z (WN(i ) )
i∈ A
III. DESIGNS OF BHATTACHARYYA PARAMETER FOR
DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
Arikan gave the formulas of Bhattacharyya parameter in the
recursive properties of the channel Polarization in [1].
Bhattacharyya parameter is concluded as,
(3) Z(WN(i) ) ≤ Z(W2(2Ni −1) ) ≤ 2Z(WN(i ) ) − Z(WN(i) )2 (9)
Z (W2(2Ni ) ) = Z (WN( i ) ) 2 (10)
For simplicity, the above formula can be written as,
Z (W2(2Ni −1) ) = 2 Z (WN(i ) ) − Z (WN(i ) )2 (11)
Here, if W is a BEC, it is perfect. But for other
communications channel, it is not sure the formula will be
good. In this section, we will discuss the different designs of
Bhattacharyya parameter for different communication channels,
(4) such as, binary symmetric channel (BSC), Gaussian channel
(AGNC) and Rayleigh channel.
According to the definition of the Bhattacharyya parameter,
we modify the Bhattacharyya parameter formula to the
following three types, and analyze the effect of Bhattacharyya
(5) parameter to the performance of Polar code.
Type I: Z (W2(2Ni −1) ) = 2Z (WN(i ) ) − Z (WN(i ) )2 ,
Type II: Z (W2(2Ni −1) ) = Z (WN(i ) ) ,
Type III: Z(W2(2Ni−1) ) = 0.5×(2Z(WN(i) ) − Z(WN(i) )2 + Z(WN(i) )) .
We present the comparison results of three different types
Bhattacharyya parameter for three common communication
channels. Figure 1 is the performance comparison of Polar
codes with three Z(W) types designed for BSC with code rate
0.04 and block length 256. The abscissa shows the error
probability of BSC. Figure 2 is the comparison of AGNC for
transformation rate 0.14 and block length 256 with three types
Z(W), the abscissa shows the signal-to-noise rate of AGNC.
Figure 3 is the comparison of Rayleigh channel which the
transformation rate is 0.14 and the block length is 256, the
abscissa is also the signal-to-noise rate of channel. It is shown
that Type I Bhattacharyya parameter has the best performance
among three kinds of Z(W).
(6)
(7)
(8) Fig.1: The comparison of BSC for three types with R=0.04 N=256.
 ( y + 1) 2
1 −
W ( y | 0) = e 2σ 2
(15)
2π σ
( y − 1) 2
1 −
W ( y | 1) = e 2σ 2
(16)
2π σ
Therefore, Z0 of the Gaussian channel can be calculated by
the variance of Gaussian channel. In comparison, Rayleigh
channel is more complicated. Normally, Rayleigh fading can
be described as,
Fig.2: The comparison of AGNC for the three types, with R=0.14 N=256.
a = K x2 + y2 (17)
where x, y are independent Gaussian random variables with
expectation 0 and variance 1, K is the scaling factor. We
assume that information accepted in the receiver obeys
Gaussian distribution. The expectation is the peak value of
Rayleigh distribution, and the variance is related to the signal-
to-noise ratio S. On the basis of Rayleigh distribution’s
properties, we can get that information’s expectation E and
variance σ2 as follows,

Fig.3: The comparison of the Rayleigh channel for three types with R=0.14
4 (18)
E=± ln 4 K
N=256. 4−π
After we obtain the recursive formulas for the computation S

of Z(W), the initial value of Bhattacharyya parameter becomes

σ 2 = (10 10 −1
) (19)
an important element in Z(W) calculation. In [14], Arikan gave According to the definition, W ( y | 0) and W ( y | 1) can be
the initial value of Bhattacharyya parameter Z0 to 0.5 for any
channels. It is apparent this value is not suitable to all written as:
communication channels since Polar codes are channel-specific ( y+
4
ln 4 K ) 2
designs. Now, we will discuss the best initial value of Z(W) for 1 − 4 −π

communication channels. W ( y | 0) = e 2σ 2 (20)

2π σ
Let Pe denote the erasure rate of BEC. It is easy to get Z0 of 4
BEC by definition in (3) as, (y−
4 −π
ln 4 K ) 2
1 −
W ( y | 1) = e 2σ 2 (21)
Z 0 = pe (12) 2π σ
Simplicity, according to the definition, Z0 of BSC is , Now, we will give the bit error rate (BER) of Polar codes
by comparing Z0=0.5 with calculating Z0 for different
Z 0 = 2 pε (1 − pε ) (13) communication channels by above results. We consider the
length of Polar codes N = 256, and the transmission codeword
where Pε is the error probability of BSC. It is shown that the 1000. We employ BP decoding algorithm for the simulations.
initial value of Z(W) is dependent on the error probability of
discrete channel and could be calculated. Hence, we call this
initial value as “calculating Z0”. However, the initial value of
Bhattacharyya parameter is definitely difficult for Gaussian
channel and Rayleigh channel, because both channels are
continuous. First, we can extend the definition of
Bhattacharyya parameter from discrete to continuous channel.
The Bhattacharyya parameter for continuous channel will be ,

Z (W ) = ∫ W ( y | 0)W ( y | 1)dy (14)

Then, we analyze the initial value of Z(W) for Gaussian Fig.4. The BER of Polar codes for BEC with R=0.14 and N=256.
channel at first. Suppose there is a communication link with
Gaussian noise with expectation 0 and variance σ2. At the same
time, PSK is adopted as modulation mode, the output of
AGNC is a signal with expectation 1 or -1 and variance σ 2 ,
W ( y | 0) and W ( y | 1) can be written as,

Fig.5:The BER of Poalr codes for BSC with R=0.04, N=256
Fig.6:The BER of Polar codes for AGNC with R=0.14, N=256
Fig.7: The BER of Polar codes for Rayleigh channel with low signal-to-noise
ratio for R=0.14,N=256,K=0.9
Fig.8: The BER of Polar codes for Rayleigh channel of high signal-to-noise
ratio, R=0.36,N=256,K=0.9
Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6 are comparison results for
BEC, BSC and AGNC respectively. It’s clearly that the BER of
using calculating Z0 is lower than using Z0=0.5. In other words,
we can select the calculating Z0 for these three communication
channel in Polar codes designs. Figure 7 is the comparison of
BER in Rayleigh channel of low signal-to-noise ratio with
transformation rate 0.14, block length 256 and scaling factor
0.9. It’s shown that using calculating Z0 is better than using
Z0=0.5. Figure 8 is the comparison result of BER in Rayleigh
channel of high signal-to-noise ratio with transformation rate
0.36, block length 256 and scaling factor 0.9. It is shown that at
this case Z0=0.5 has a better performance.
IV. CONCLUSION
Polar codes are capacity-achieving channel codes based on
channel polarization. Bhattacharyya parameter plays an
important part in Polar codes construction. In this paper, we
present different formula of Bhattacharyya parameter for
different communication channels. Firstly, we discuss the
effects of the different formula in recursive properties of the
channel polarization for different channels. It is shown that
Type I Bhattacharyya parameter has the best performance
among three kinds of Z(W). Secondly, we deduce the
expression of the initial value of Bhattacharyya parameter
Z 0 for different channels and verify them by numerical
simulations. For BEC, BSC, AGNC, we find our calculating Z0
is more satisfactory. But for Rayleigh channel, the case is more
complicated. The initial value of Z(W) is dependent on signal-
to-noise ratio of the channel.
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the Foundation (No.
NJ210002).
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