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Raptor codes encode a given message consisting of a number of symbols, ''k'', into a potentially limitless sequence of encoding symbols such that knowledge of any ''k'' or more encoding symbols allows the message to be recovered with some non-zero probability. The probability that the message can be recovered increases with the number of symbols received above ''k'' becoming very close to one once the number of received symbols is only very slightly larger than ''k''. A symbol can be any size, from a single bit to hundreds or thousands of bytes. Raptor codes may be systematic or non-systematic. In the systematic case, the symbols of the original message are included within the set of encoding symbols. An example of a systematic Raptor code is the code defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project for use in mobile cellular wireless broadcast and multicast and also used by DVB-H standards for IP datacast to handheld devices (see external links). Online Codes are an example of a non-systematic Raptor code. DETAILED DISCUSSION Introduction Raptor codes are formed by the concatenation of two codes. A fixed rate erasure code, usually with a fairly high rate, is applied as a 'pre-code' or 'outer code'. This pre-code may itself be a concatenation of multiple codes, for example in the code standardized by 3GPP a High Density Parity Check code derived from the binary Gray Sequence is concatenated with a simple regular Low Density Parity Check code. Another possibility would be a concatenation of a Hamming code with a Low Density Parity Check code. The inner code takes the result of the pre-coding operation and generates a sequence of encoding symbols. The inner code is a form of LT Codes . Each encoding symbol is the XOR of a randomly chosen set of symbols from the pre-code output. The number of symbols which are XORed together to form an output symbol is chosen randomly for each output symbol according to a specific probability distribution. This distribution, as well as the mechanism for generating random numbers for sampling this distribution and for choosing the symbols to be XORed must be known to both sender and receiver. In one approach, each symbol is accompanied with an identifier which can be used as a seed to a pseudo-random number generator to generate this information, the exact same process being followed by both sender and receiver. In the case of non-systematic Raptor codes, the source data to be encoded is used as the input to the pre-coding stage. In the case of systematic Raptor codes, the input to the pre-coding stage is obtained by first applying the inverse of the encoding operation that generates the first ''k'' output symbols to the source data. Thus, applying the normal encoding operation to the resulting symbols causes the original source symbols to be regenerated as the first ''k'' output symbols of the code. It is necessary to ensure that the random processes which generate the first ''k'' output symbols generate an operation which is invertible. Decoding Two approaches are possible to decoding Raptor codes. In a concatenated approach, the inner code is decoded first using a belief propogation algorithm as used for LT codes. Decoding succeeds if this operation recovers sufficient symbols that the outer code can recover the remaining symbols using the decoding algorithm appropriate for that code. In a combined approach, the relationships between symbols defined by both the inner and outer codes are considered as a single combined set of simultaneous equations which can be solved by the usual means for such systems such as Gaussian Elimination. Computational complexity Raptor codes require ''O(1)'' time to generate an encoding symbol and ''O(k)'' time to decode a message of length ''k''. EXTERNAL LINKS REFERENCES
SEE ALSO Erasure Code , LT Codes |
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