Generalized Sparse Regression Codes for Short Block Lengths

Sparse regression codes (SPARC) connect the sparse signal recovery framework of compressive sensing with error control coding techniques. SPARC encoding produces codewords which are \emph{sparse} linear combinations of columns of a dictionary matrix. SPARC decoding is accomplished using sparse signal recovery algorithms. We construct dictionary matrices using Gold codes and mutually unbiased bases and develop suitable generalizations of SPARC (GSPARC). We develop a greedy decoder, referred as match and decode (MAD) algorithm and provide its analytical noiseless recovery guarantees. We propose a parallel greedy search technique, referred as parallel MAD (PMAD), to improve the performance. We describe the applicability of GSPARC with PMAD decoder for multi-user channels, providing a non-orthogonal multiple access scheme. We present numerical results comparing the block error rate (BLER) performance of the proposed algorithms for GSPARC in AWGN channels, in the short block length regime. The PMAD decoder gives better BLER than the approximate message passing decoder for SPARC. GSPARC with PMAD gives comparable and competitive BLER performance, when compared to other existing codes. In multi-user channels, GSPARC with PMAD decoder outperforms the sphere packing lower bounds of an orthogonal multiple access scheme, which has the same spectral efficiency.

Communications using Sparse Signals

Inspired by compressive sensing principles, we propose novel error control coding techniques for communication systems. The information bits are encoded in the support and the non-zero entries of a sparse signal. By selecting a dictionary matrix with suitable dimensions, the codeword for transmission is obtained by multiplying the dictionary matrix with the sparse signal. Specifically, the codewords are obtained from the sparse linear combinations of the columns of the dictionary matrix. At the decoder, we employ variations of greedy sparse signal recovery algorithms. Using Gold code sequences and mutually unbiased bases from quantum information theory as dictionary matrices, we study the block error rate (BLER) performance of the proposed scheme in the AWGN channel. Our results show that the proposed scheme has a comparable and competitive performance with respect to the several widely used linear codes, for very small to moderate block lengths. In addition, our coding scheme extends straightforwardly to multi-user scenarios such as multiple access channel, broadcast channel, and interference channel. In these multi-user channels, if the users are grouped such that they have similar channel gains and noise levels, the overall BLER performance of our proposed scheme will coincide with an equivalent single-user scenario.