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Flash-Speicher wurden ursprünglich als Speichermedium für Digitalkameras entwickelt, finden inzwischen aber in vielen Bereichen Anwendung.
Die in Konstanz ansässige Firma Hyperstone GmbH ist ein führender Anbieter von Flashcontrollern für Anwendungen mit erhöhten Anforderungen an Zuverlässigkeit und Datenintegrität. Bereits seit April 2011 kooperiert die Firma Hyperstone mit der HTWG Konstanz bei der Entwicklung von Fehlerkorrekturverfahren für einen zuverlässigen Einsatz von Flash-Speichern. Aufgrund der rasanten Entwicklung bei Flashspeicherbausteinen ist auch eine stetige Weiterentwicklung der Korrekturverfahren notwendig. Im Rahmen dieser Kooperation wurde inzwischen zwei Flashcontroller mit sehr leistungsfähiger Fehlerkorrektur entwickelt. Der folgende Artikel gibt Einblick in den Einsatz von Flash-Speichern und erläutert die Notwendigkeit für eine leistungsfähige Fehlerkorrektur.
This work investigates soft input decoding for generalized concatenated (GC) codes. The GC codes are constructed from inner nested binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH)codes and outer Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. In order to enable soft input decoding for the inner BCH block codes, a sequential stack decoding algorithm is used. Ordinary stack decoding of binary block codes requires the complete trellis of the code.
In this work a representation of the block codes based on the trellises of supercodes is proposed in order to reduce the memory requirements for the representation of the BCH codes. Results for the decoding performance of the overall GC code are presented.
Furthermore, an efficient hardware implementation of the GC decoder is proposed.
Codes over quotient rings of Lipschitz integers have recently attracted some attention. This work investigates the performance of Lipschitz integer constellations for transmission over the AWGN channel by means of the constellation figure of merit. A construction of sets of Lipschitz integers that leads to a better constellation figure of merit compared to ordinary Lipschitz integer constellations is presented. In particular, it is demonstrated that the concept of set partitioning can be applied to quotient rings of Lipschitz integers where the number of elements is not a prime number. It is shown that it is always possible to partition such quotient rings into additive subgroups in a manner that the minimum Euclidean distance of each subgroup is strictly larger than in the original set. The resulting signal constellations have a better performance for transmission over an additive white Gaussian noise channel compared to Gaussian integer constellations and to ordinary Lipschitz integer constellations. In addition, we present multilevel code constructions for the new signal constellations.
This paper proposes a pipelined decoder architecture for generalised concatenated (GC) codes. These codes are constructed from inner binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) and outer Reed-Solomon codes. The decoding of the component codes is based on hard decision syndrome decoding algorithms. The concatenated code consists of several small BCH codes. This enables a hardware architecture where the decoding of the component codes is pipelined. A hardware implementation of a GC decoder is presented and the cell area, cycle counts as well as the timing constraints are investigated. The results are compared to a decoder for long BCH codes with similar error correction performance. In comparison, the pipelined GC decoder achieves a higher throughput and has lower area consumption.
Codes over quotient rings of Lipschitz integers have recently attracted some attention. This work investigates the performance of Lipschitz integer constellations for transmission over the AWGN channel by means of the constellation figure of merit. A construction of sets of Lipschitz integers is presented that leads to a better constellation figure of merit compared to ordinary Lipschitz integer constellations. In particular, it is demonstrated that the concept of set partitioning can be applied to quotient rings of Lipschitz integers where the number of elements is not a prime number. It is shown that it is always possible to partition such quotient rings into additive subgroups in a manner that the minimum Euclidean distance of each subgroup is strictly larger than in the original set. The resulting signal constellations have a better performance for transmission over an additive white Gaussian noise channel compared to Gaussian integer constellations and to ordinary Lipschitz integer constellations.
This contribution presents a data compression scheme for applications in non-volatile flash memories. The objective of the data compression algorithm is to reduce the amount of user data such that the redundancy of the error correction coding can be increased in order to improve the reliability of the data storage system. The data compression is performed on block level considering data blocks of 1 kilobyte. We present an encoder architecture that has low memory requirements and provides a fast data encoding.
This work proposes an efficient hardware Implementation of sequential stack decoding of binary block codes. The decoder can be applied for soft input decoding for generalized concatenated (GC) codes. The GC codes are constructed from inner nested binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes and outer Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. In order to enable soft input decoding for the inner BCH block codes, a sequential stack decoding algorithm is used.
This work investigates data compression algorithms for applications in non-volatile flash memories. The main goal of the data compression is to minimize the amount of user data such that the redundancy of the error correction coding can be increased and the reliability of the error correction can be improved. A compression algorithm is proposed that combines a modified move-to-front algorithm with Huffman coding. The proposed data compression algorithm has low complexity, but provides a compression gain comparable to the Lempel-Ziv-Welch algorithm.
This paper proposes a soft input decoding algorithm and a decoder architecture for generalized concatenated (GC) codes. The GC codes are constructed from inner nested binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes and outer Reed-Solomon codes. In order to enable soft input decoding for the inner BCH block codes, a sequential stack decoding algorithm is used. Ordinary stack decoding of binary block codes requires the complete trellis of the code. In this paper, a representation of the block codes based on the trellises of supercodes is proposed in order to reduce the memory requirements for the representation of the BCH codes. This enables an efficient hardware implementation. The results for the decoding performance of the overall GC code are presented. Furthermore, a hardware architecture of the GC decoder is proposed. The proposed decoder is well suited for applications that require very low residual error rates.
In this paper we propose a method to determine the active speaker for each time-frequency point in the noisy signals of a microphone array. This detection is based on a statistical model where the speech signals as well as noise signals are assumed to be multivariate Gaussian random variables in the Fourier domain. Based on this model we derive a maximum-likelihood detector for the active speaker. The decision is based on the a posteriori signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a speaker dependent max-SNR beamformer.
This letter introduces signal constellations based on multiplicative groups of Eisenstein integers, i.e., hexagonal lattices. These sets of Eisenstein integers are proposed as signal constellations for generalized spatial modulation. The algebraic properties of the new constellations are investigated and a set partitioning technique is developed. This technique can be used to design coded modulation schemes over hexagonal lattices.
This paper studies suitable models for the identification of nonlinear acoustic systems. A cascaded structure of nonlinear filters is proposed that contains several parallel branches, consisting of polynomial functions followed by a linear filter for each order of nonlinearity. The second order of nonlinearity is additionally modelled with a parallel branch, containing a Volterra filter. These are followed by a long linear FIR filter that is able to model the room acoustics. The model is applied to the identification of a tube power amplifier feeding a guitar loudspeaker cabinet in an acoustic room. The adaptive identification is performed by the normalized least mean square (NLMS) algorithm. Compared with a generalized polynomial Hammerstein (GPH) model, the accuracy in modelling the dedicated real world system can be improved to a greater extend than increasing the order of nonlinearity in the GPH model.
The multichannel Wiener filter (MWF) is a well-established noise reduction technique for speech processing. Most commonly, the speech component in a selected reference microphone is estimated. The choice of this reference microphone influences the broadband output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as well as the speech distortion. Recently, a generalized formulation for the MWF (G-MWF) was proposed that uses a weighted sum of the individual transfer functions from the speaker to the microphones to form a better speech reference resulting in an improved broadband output SNR. For the MWF, the influence of the phase reference is often neglected, because it has no impact on the narrow-band output SNR. The G-MWF allows an arbitrary choice of the phase reference especially in the context of spatially distributed microphones.
In this work, we demonstrate that the phase reference determines the overall transfer function and hence has an impact on both the speech distortion and the broadband output SNR. We propose two speech references that achieve a better signal-to-reverberation ratio (SRR) and an improvement in the broadband output SNR. Both proposed references are based on the phase of a delay-and-sum beamformer. Hence, the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) of the speech source is required to align the signals. The different techniques are compared in terms of SRR and SNR performance.
This work proposes a decoder implementation for high-rate generalized concatenated (GC) codes. The proposed codes are well suited for error correction in flash memories for high reliability data storage. The GC codes are constructed from inner extended binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes and outer Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. The extended BCH codes enable high-rate GC codes. Moreover, the decoder can take advantage of soft information. For the first three levels of inner codes we propose an optional Chase soft decoder. In this work, the code construction is explained and a decoder architecture is presented. Furthermore, area and throughput results are discussed.
In diesem Beitrag wird die Hardware-Implementierung eines Datenkompressionsverfahrens auf einem FPGA vorgestellt. Das Verfahren wurde speziell für Kompression kurzer Datenblöcke in Flash-Speichern entwickelt. Dabei werden Quelldaten mithilfe eines Encoders komprimiert und mit einem Decoder verlustlos dekomprimiert. Durch die Reduktion der Datenrate kann in Flash-Speichern die Übertragungsdauer zum Lesen und Schreiben reduziert werden. Ebenso ist eine Kompression von Nutzdaten sinnvoll, um zusätzliche Redundanzen für einen Fehlerschutz einfügen zu können, ohne den Gesamtspeicherplatzbedarf zu erhöhen.
This work proposes a lossless data compression algorithm for short data blocks. The proposed compression scheme combines a modified move-to-front algorithm with Huffman coding. This algorithm is applicable in storage systems where the data compression is performed on block level with short block sizes, in particular, in non-volatile memories. For block sizes in the range of 1(Formula presented.)kB, it provides a compression gain comparable to the Lempel–Ziv–Welch algorithm. Moreover, encoder and decoder architectures are proposed that have low memory requirements and provide fast data encoding and decoding.
The binary asymmetric channel (BAC) is a model for the error characterization of multi-level cell (MLC) flash memories. This contribution presents a joint channel and source coding approach improving the reliability of MLC flash memories. The objective of the data compression algorithm is to reduce the amount of user data such that the redundancy of the error correction coding can be increased in order to improve the reliability of the data storage system. Moreover, data compression can be utilized to exploit the asymmetry of the channel to reduce the error probability. With MLC flash memories data compression has to be performed on block level considering short data blocks. We present a coding scheme suitable for blocks of 1 kilobyte of data.
Error correction coding based on soft-input decoding can significantly improve the reliability of flash memories. Such soft-input decoding algorithms require reliability information about the state of the memory cell. This work proposes a channel model for soft-input decoding that considers the asymmetric error characteristic of multi-level cell (MLC) and triple-level cell (TLC) memories. Based on this model, an estimation method for the channel state information is devised which avoids additional pilot data for channel estimation. Furthermore, the proposed method supports page-wise read operations.
Method and device for error correction coding based on high-rate generalized concatenated codes
(2017)
Field error correction coding is particularly suitable for applications in non-volatile flash memories. We describe a method for error correction encoding of data to be stored in a memory device, a corresponding method for decoding a codeword matrix resulting from the encoding method, a coding device, and a computer program for performing the methods on the coding device, using a new construction for high-rate generalized concatenated (GC) codes. The codes, which are well suited for error correction in flash memories for high reliability data storage, are constructed from inner nested binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes and outer codes, preferably Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. For the inner codes extended BCH codes are used, where only single parity-check codes are applied in the first level of the GC code. This enables high-rate codes.
A soft input decoding method and a decoder for generalized concatenated (GC) codes. The GC codes are constructed from inner nested block codes, such as binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem, BCH, codes and outer codes, such as Reed-Solomon, RS, codes. In order to enable soft input decoding for the inner block codes, a sequential stack decoding algorithm is used. Ordinary stack decoding of binary block codes requires the complete trellis of the code. In one aspect, the present invention applies instead a representation of the block codes based on the trellises of supercodes in order to reduce the memory requirements for the representation of the inner codes. This enables an efficient hardware implementation. In another aspect, there is provided a soft input decoding method and device employing a sequential stack decoding algorithm in combination with list-of-two decoding which is particularly well suited for applications that require very low residual error rates.
This letter proposes two contributions to improve the performance of transmission with generalized multistream spatial modulation (SM). In particular, a modified suboptimal detection algorithm based on the Gaussian approximation method is proposed. The proposed modifications reduce the complexity of the Gaussian approximation method and improve the performance for high signal-to-noise ratios. Furthermore, this letter introduces signal constellations based on Hurwitz integers, i.e., a 4-D lattice. Simulation results demonstrate that these signal constellations are beneficial for generalized SM with two active antennas.
Error correction coding based on soft-input decoding can significantly improve the reliability of non-volatile flash memories. This work proposes a soft-input decoder for generalized concatenated (GC) codes. GC codes are well suited for error correction in flash memories for high reliability data storage. We propose GC codes constructed from inner extended binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes and outer Reed-Solomon codes. The extended BCH codes enable an efficient hard-input decoding. Furthermore, a low-complexity soft-input decoding method is proposed. This bit-flipping decoder uses a fixed number of test patterns and an algebraic decoder for soft-decoding. An acceptance criterion for the final candidate codeword is proposed. Combined with error and erasure decoding of the outer Reed-Solomon codes, this acceptance criterion can improve the decoding performance and reduce the decoding complexity. The presented simulation results show that the proposed bit-flipping decoder in combination with outer error and erasure decoding can outperform maximum likelihood decoding of the inner codes.
The introduction of multiple-level cell (MLC) and triple-level cell (TLC) technologies reduced the reliability of flash memories significantly compared with single-level cell flash. With MLC and TLC flash cells, the error probability varies for the different states. Hence, asymmetric models are required to characterize the flash channel, e.g., the binary asymmetric channel (BAC). This contribution presents a combined channel and source coding approach improving the reliability of MLC and TLC flash memories. With flash memories data compression has to be performed on block level considering short-data blocks. We present a coding scheme suitable for blocks of 1 kB of data. The objective of the data compression algorithm is to reduce the amount of user data such that the redundancy of the error correction coding can be increased in order to improve the reliability of the data storage system. Moreover, data compression can be utilized to exploit the asymmetry of the channel to reduce the error probability. With redundant data, the proposed combined coding scheme results in a significant improvement of the program/erase cycling endurance and the data retention time of flash memories.
Generalized concatenated (GC) codes with soft-input decoding were recently proposed for error correction in flash memories. This work proposes a soft-input decoder for GC codes that is based on a low-complexity bit-flipping procedure. This bit-flipping decoder uses a fixed number of test patterns and an algebraic decoder for soft-input decoding. An acceptance criterion for the final candidate codeword is proposed. Combined with error and erasure decoding of the outer Reed-Solomon codes, this bit-flipping decoder can improve the decoding performance and reduce the decoding complexity compared to the previously proposed sequential decoding. The bit-flipping decoder achieves a decoding performance similar to a maximum likelihood decoder for the inner codes.
This work proposes a construction for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over finite Gaussian integer fields. Furthermore, a new channel model for codes over Gaussian integers is introduced and its channel capacity is derived. This channel can be considered as a first order approximation of the additive white Gaussian noise channel with hard decision detection where only errors to nearest neighbors in the signal constellation are considered. For this channel, the proposed LDPC codes can be decoded with a simple non-probabilistic iterative decoding algorithm similar to Gallager's decoding algorithm A.
Digitale Signaturen zum Überprüfen der Integrität von Daten, beispielsweise von Software-Updates, gewinnen zunehmend an Bedeutung. Im Bereich der eingebetteten Systeme kommen derzeit wegen der geringen Komplexität noch überwiegend symmetri-sche Verschlüsselungsverfahren zur Berechnung eines Authentifizierungscodes zum Einsatz. Asym-metrische Kryptosysteme sind rechenaufwendiger, bieten aber mehr Sicherheit, weil der Schlüssel zur Authentifizierung nicht geheim gehalten werden muss. Asymmetrische Signaturverfahren werden typischerweise zweistufig berechnet. Der Schlüssel wird nicht direkt auf die Daten angewendet, sondern auf deren Hash-Wert, der mit Hilfe einer Hash-funktion zuvor berechnet wurde. Zum Einsatz dieser Verfahren in eingebetteten Systemen ist es erforder-lich, dass die Hashfunktion einen hinreichend gro-ßen Datendurchsatz ermöglicht. In diesem Beitrag wird eine effiziente Hardware-Implementierung der SHA-256 Hashfunktion vorgestellt.
Embodiments are generally related to the field of channel and source coding of data to be sent over a channel, such as a communication link or a data memory. Some specific embodiments are related to a method of encoding data for transmission over a channel, a corresponding decoding method, a coding device for performing one or both of these methods and a computer program comprising instructions to cause said coding device to perform one or both of said methods.
This work studies a wind noise reduction approach for communication applications in a car environment. An endfire array consisting of two microphones is considered as a substitute for an ordinary cardioid microphone capsule of the same size. Using the decomposition of the multichannel Wiener filter (MWF), a suitable beamformer and a single-channel post filter are derived. Due to the known array geometry and the location of the speech source, assumptions about the signal properties can be made to simplify the MWF beamformer and to estimate the speech and noise power spectral densities required for the post filter. Even for closely spaced microphones, the different signal properties at the microphones can be exploited to achieve a significant reduction of wind noise. The proposed beamformer approach results in an improved speech signal regarding the signal-to-noise-ratio and keeps the linear speech distortion low. The derived post filter shows equal performance compared to known approaches but reduces the effort for noise estimation.
Generalised concatenated (GC) codes are well suited for error correction in flash memories for high-reliability data storage. The GC codes are constructed from inner extended binary Bose–Chaudhuri–Hocquenghem (BCH) codes and outer Reed–Solomon codes. The extended BCH codes enable high-rate GC codes and low-complexity soft input decoding. This work proposes a decoder architecture for high-rate GC codes. For such codes, outer error and erasure decoding are mandatory. A pipelined decoder architecture is proposed that achieves a high data throughput with hard input decoding. In addition, a low-complexity soft input decoder is proposed. This soft decoding approach combines a bit-flipping strategy with algebraic decoding. The decoder components for the hard input decoding can be utilised which reduces the overhead for the soft input decoding. Nevertheless, the soft input decoding achieves a significant coding gain compared with hard input decoding.
This work introduces new signal constellations based on Eisenstein integers, i.e., the hexagonal lattice. These sets of Eisenstein integers have a cardinality which is an integer power of three. They are proposed as signal constellations for representation in the equivalent complex baseband model, especially for applications like physical-layer network coding or MIMO transmission where the constellation is required to be a subset of a lattice. It is shown that these constellations form additive groups where the addition over the complex plane corresponds to the addition with carry over ternary Galois fields. A ternary set partitioning is derived that enables multilevel coding based on ternary error-correcting codes. In the subsets, this partitioning achieves a gain of 4.77 dB, which results from an increased minimum squared Euclidean distance of the signal points. Furthermore, the constellation-constrained capacities over the AWGN channel and the related level capacities in case of ternary multilevel coding are investigated. Simulation results for multilevel coding based on ternary LDPC codes are presented which show that a performance close to the constellation-constrained capacities can be achieved.
The computational complexity of the optimal maximum likelihood (ML) detector for spatial modulation increases rapidly as more transmit antennas or larger modulation orders are employed. Hence, ML detection may be infeasible for higher bit rates. This work proposes an improved suboptimal detection algorithm based on the Gaussian approximation method. It is demonstrated that the new method is closely related to the previously published signal vector based detection and the modified maximum ratio combiner, but can improve the detection performance compared to these methods. Furthermore, the performance of different signal constellations with suboptimal detection is investigated. Simulation results indicate that the performance loss compared to ML detection depends heavily on the signal constellation, where the recently proposed Eisenstein integer constellations are beneficial compared to classical QAM or PSK constellations.
Today, many resource-constrained systems, such as embedded systems, still rely on symmetric cryptography for authentication and digital signatures. Asymmetric cryptography provide a higher security level, but software implementations of public-key algorithms on small embedded systems are extremely slow. Hence, such embedded systems require hardware assistance, i.e. crypto coprocessors optimized for public key operations. Many such coprocessor designs aim on high computational performance. In this work, an area efficient elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) coprocessor is presented for applications in small embedded systems where high performance coprocessors are too costly. We propose a simple control unit with a small instruction set that supports different ECC point multiplication (PM) algorithms. The control unit reduces the logic and number of registers compared with other implementations of ECC point multiplications.
It is well known that signal constellations which are based on a hexagonal grid, so-called Eisenstein constellations, exhibit a performance gain over conventional QAM ones. This benefit is realized by a packing and shaping gain of the Eisenstein (hexagonal) integers in comparison to the Gaussian (complex) integers. Such constellations are especially relevant in transmission schemes that utilize lattice structures, e.g., in MIMO communications. However, for coded modulation, the straightforward approach is to combine Eisenstein constellations with ternary channel codes. In this paper, a multilevel-coding approach is proposed where encoding and multistage decoding can directly be performed with state-of-the-art binary channel codes. An associated mapping and a binary set partitioning are derived. The performance of the proposed approach is contrasted to classical multilevel coding over QAM constellations. To this end, both the single-user AWGN scenario and the (multiuser) MIMO broadcast scenario using lattice-reduction-aided preequalization are considered. Results obtained from numerical simulations with LDPC codes complement the theoretical aspects.
The Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm is an important dictionary-based data compression approach that is used in many communication and storage systems. The parallel dictionary LZW (PDLZW) algorithm speeds up the LZW encoding by using multiple dictionaries. The PDLZW algorithm applies different dictionaries to store strings of different lengths, where each dictionary stores only strings of the same length. This simplifies the parallel search in the dictionaries for hardware implementations. The compression gain of the PDLZW depends on the partitioning of the address space, i.e. on the sizes of the parallel dictionaries. However, there is no universal partitioning that is optimal for all data sources. This work proposes an address space partitioning technique that optimizes the compression rate of the PDLZW using a Markov model for the data. Numerical results for address spaces with 512, 1024, and 2048 entries demonstrate that the proposed partitioning improves the performance of the PDLZW compared with the original proposal.
Error correction coding (ECC) for optical communication and persistent storage systems require high rate codes that enable high data throughput and low residual errors. Recently, different concatenated coding schemes were proposed that are based on binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes that have low error correcting capabilities. Commonly, hardware implementations for BCH decoding are based on the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm (BMA). However, for single, double, and triple error correcting BCH codes, Peterson's algorithm can be more efficient than the BMA. The known hardware architectures of Peterson's algorithm require Galois field inversion. This inversion dominates the hardware complexity and limits the decoding speed. This work proposes an inversion-less version of Peterson's algorithm. Moreover, a decoding architecture is presented that is faster than decoders that employ inversion or the fully parallel BMA at a comparable circuit size.
This work proposes a suboptimal detection algorithm for generalized multistream spatial modulation. Many suboptimal detection algorithms for spatial modulation use two-stage detection schemes where the set of active antennas is detected in the first stage and the transmitted symbols in the second stage. For multistream spatial modulation with large signal constellations the second detection step typically dominates the detection complexity. With the proposed detection scheme, the modified Gaussian approximation method is used for detecting the antenna pattern. In order to reduce the complexity for detecting the signal points, we propose a combined equalization and list decoding approach. Simulation results demonstrate that the new algorithm achieves near-maximum-likelihood performance with small list sizes. It significantly reduces the complexity when compared with conventional two-stage detection schemes.
The introduction of multi level cell (MLC) and triple level cell (TLC) technologies reduced the reliability of flash memories significantly compared with single level cell (SLC) flash. The reliability of the flash memory suffers from various errors causes. Program/erase cycles, read disturb, and cell to cell interference impact the threshold voltages. With pre-defined fixed read thresholds a voltage shift increases the bit error rate (BER). This work proposes a read threshold calibration method that aims on minimizing the BER by adapting the read voltages. The adaptation of the read thresholds is based on the number of errors observed in the codeword protecting a small amount of meta-data. Simulations based on flash measurements demonstrate that this method can significantly reduce the BER of TLC memories.
The Lempel–Ziv–Welch (LZW) algorithm is an important dictionary-based data compression approach that is used in many communication and storage systems. The parallel dictionary LZW (PDLZW) algorithm speeds up the LZW encoding by using multiple dictionaries. This simplifies the parallel search in the dictionaries. However, the compression gain of the PDLZW depends on the partitioning of the address space, i.e. on the sizes of the parallel dictionaries. This work proposes an address space partitioning technique that optimises the compression rate of the PDLZW. Numerical results for address spaces with 512, 1024, and 2048 entries demonstrate that the proposed address partitioning improves the performance of the PDLZW compared with the original proposal. These address space sizes are suitable for flash storage systems. Moreover, the PDLZW has relative high memory requirements which dominate the costs of a hardware implementation. This work proposes a recursive dictionary structure and a word partitioning technique that significantly reduce the memory size of the parallel dictionaries.
The Burrows–Wheeler transformation (BWT) is a reversible block sorting transform that is an integral part of many data compression algorithms. This work proposes a memory-efficient pipelined decoder for the BWT. In particular, the authors consider the limited context order BWT that has low memory requirements and enable fast encoding. However, the decoding of the limited context order BWT is typically much slower than the encoding. The proposed decoder pipeline provides a fast inverse BWT by splitting the decoding into several processing stages which are executed in parallel.
This work presents a new concept to implement the elliptic curve point multiplication (PM). This computation is based on a new modular arithmetic over Gaussian integer fields. Gaussian integers are a subset of the complex numbers such that the real and imaginary parts are integers. Since Gaussian integer fields are isomorphic to prime fields, this arithmetic is suitable for many elliptic curves. Representing the key by a Gaussian integer expansion is beneficial to reduce the computational complexity and the memory requirements of secure hardware implementations, which are robust against attacks. Furthermore, an area-efficient coprocessor design is proposed with an arithmetic unit that enables Montgomery modular arithmetic over Gaussian integers. The proposed architecture and the new arithmetic provide high flexibility, i.e., binary and non-binary key expansions as well as protected and unprotected PM calculations are supported. The proposed coprocessor is a competitive solution for a compact ECC processor suitable for applications in small embedded systems.
Side Channel Attack Resistance of the Elliptic Curve Point Multiplication using Gaussian Integers
(2020)
Elliptic curve cryptography is a cornerstone of embedded security. However, hardware implementations of the elliptic curve point multiplication are prone to side channel attacks. In this work, we present a new key expansion algorithm which improves the resistance against timing and simple power analysis attacks. Furthermore, we consider a new concept for calculating the point multiplication, where the points of the curve are represented as Gaussian integers. Gaussian integers are subset of the complex numbers, such that the real and imaginary parts are integers. Since Gaussian integer fields are isomorphic to prime fields, this concept is suitable for many elliptic curves. Representing the key by a Gaussian integer expansion is beneficial to reduce the computational complexity and the memory requirements of a secure hardware implementation.
In this article, we give the construction of new four-dimensional signal constellations in the Euclidean space, which represent a certain combination of binary frequency-shift keying (BFSK) and M-ary amplitude-phase-shift keying (MAPSK). Description of such signals and the formulas for calculating the minimum squared Euclidean distance are presented. We have developed an analytic building method for even and odd values of M. Hence, no computer search and no heuristic methods are required. The new optimized BFSK-MAPSK (M = 5,6,···,16) signal constructions are built for the values of modulation indexes h =0.1,0.15,···,0.5 and their parameters are given. The results of computer simulations are also provided. Based on the obtained results we can conclude, that BFSK-MAPSK systems outperform similar four-dimensional systems both in terms of minimum squared Euclidean distance and simulated symbol error rate.
Side Channel Attack Resistance of the Elliptic Curve Point Multiplication using Eisenstein Integers
(2020)
Asymmetric cryptography empowers secure key exchange and digital signatures for message authentication. Nevertheless, consumer electronics and embedded systems often rely on symmetric cryptosystems because asymmetric cryptosystems are computationally intensive. Besides, implementations of cryptosystems are prone to side-channel attacks (SCA). Consequently, the secure and efficient implementation of asymmetric cryptography on resource-constrained systems is demanding. In this work, elliptic curve cryptography is considered. A new concept for an SCA resistant calculation of the elliptic curve point multiplication over Eisenstein integers is presented and an efficient arithmetic over Eisenstein integers is proposed. Representing the key by Eisenstein integer expansions is beneficial to reduce the computational complexity and the memory requirements of an SCA protected implementation.
The reliability of flash memories suffers from various error causes. Program/erase cycles, read disturb, and cell to cell interference impact the threshold voltages and cause bit errors during the read process. Hence, error correction is required to ensure reliable data storage. In this work, we investigate the bit-labeling of triple level cell (TLC) memories. This labeling determines the page capacities and the latency of the read process. The page capacity defines the redundancy that is required for error correction coding. Typically, Gray codes are used to encode the cell state such that the codes of adjacent states differ in a single digit. These Gray codes minimize the latency for random access reads but cannot balance the page capacities. Based on measured voltage distributions, we investigate the page capacities and propose a labeling that provides a better rate balancing than Gray labeling.
Soft-input decoding of concatenated codes based on the Plotkin construction and BCH component codes
(2020)
Low latency communication requires soft-input decoding of binary block codes with small to medium block lengths.
In this work, we consider generalized multiple concatenated (GMC) codes based on the Plotkin construction. These codes are similar to Reed-Muller (RM) codes. In contrast to RM codes, BCH codes are employed as component codes. This leads to improved code parameters. Moreover, a decoding algorithm is proposed that exploits the recursive structure of the concatenation. This algorithm enables efficient soft-input decoding of binary block codes with small to medium lengths. The proposed codes and their decoding achieve significant performance gains compared with RM codes and recursive GMC decoding.
This paper proposes a novel transmission scheme for generalized multistream spatial modulation. This new approach uses one Mannheim error correcting codes over Gaussian or Eisenstein integers as multidimensional signal constellations. These codes enable a suboptimal decoding strategy with near maximum likelihood performance for transmission over the additive white Gaussian noise channel. In this contribution, this decoding algorithm is generalized to the detection for generalized multistream spatial modulation. The proposed method can outperform conventional generalized multistream spatial modulation with respect to decoding performance, detection complexity, and spectral efficiency.
Spatial modulation is a low-complexity multipleinput/ multipleoutput transmission technique. The recently proposed spatial permutation modulation (SPM) extends the concept of spatial modulation. It is a coding approach, where the symbols are dispersed in space and time. In the original proposal of SPM, short repetition codes and permutation codes were used to construct a space-time code. In this paper, we propose a similar coding scheme that combines permutation codes with codes over Gaussian integers. Short codes over Gaussian integers have good distance properties. Furthermore, the code alphabet can directly be applied as signal constellation, hence no mapping is required. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed coding approach outperforms SPM with repetition codes.
The Montgomery multiplication is an efficient method for modular arithmetic. Typically, it is used for modular arithmetic over integer rings to prevent the expensive inversion for the modulo reduction. In this work, we consider modular arithmetic over rings of Gaussian integers. Gaussian integers are subset of the complex numbers such that the real and imaginary parts are integers. In many cases Gaussian integer rings are isomorphic to ordinary integer rings. We demonstrate that the concept of the Montgomery multiplication can be extended to Gaussian integers. Due to independent calculation of the real and imaginary parts, the computation complexity of the multiplication is reduced compared with ordinary integer modular arithmetic. This concept is suitable for coding applications as well as for asymmetric key cryptographic systems, such as elliptic curve cryptography or the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman system.
Multi-dimensional spatial modulation is a multipleinput/ multiple-output wireless transmission technique, that uses only a few active antennas simultaneously. The computational complexity of the optimal maximum-likelihood (ML) detector at the receiver increases rapidly as more transmit antennas or larger modulation orders are employed. ML detection may be infeasible for higher bit rates. Many suboptimal detection algorithms for spatial modulation use two-stage detection schemes where the set of active antennas is detected in the first stage and the transmitted symbols in the second stage. Typically, these detection schemes use the ML strategy for the symbol detection. In this work, we consider a suboptimal detection algorithm for the second detection stage. This approach combines equalization and list decoding. We propose an algorithm for multi-dimensional signal constellations with a reduced search space in the second detection stage through set partitioning. In particular, we derive a set partitioning from the properties of Hurwitz integers. Simulation results demonstrate that the new algorithm achieves near-ML performance. It significantly reduces the complexity when compared with conventional two-stage detection schemes. Multi-dimensional constellations in combination with suboptimal detection can even outperform conventional signal constellations in combination with ML detection.
Many resource-constrained systems still rely on symmetric cryptography for verification and authentication. Asymmetric cryptographic systems provide higher security levels, but are very computational intensive. Hence, embedded systems can benefit from hardware assistance, i.e., coprocessors optimized for the required public key operations. In this work, we propose an elliptic curve cryptographic coprocessors design for resource-constrained systems. Many such coprocessor designs consider only special (Solinas) prime fields, which enable a low-complexity modulo arithmetic. Other implementations support arbitrary prime curves using the Montgomery reduction. These implementations typically require more time for the point multiplication. We present a coprocessor design that has low area requirements and enables a trade-off between performance and flexibility. The point multiplication can be performed either using a fast arithmetic based on Solinas primes or using a slower, but flexible Montgomery modular arithmetic.
In this work, we investigate a hybrid decoding approach that combines algebraic hard-input decoding of binary block codes with soft-input decoding. In particular, an acceptance criterion is proposed which determines the reliability of a candidate codeword. For many received codewords the stopping criterion indicates that the hard-decoding result is sufficiently reliable, and the costly soft-input decoding can be omitted. The proposed acceptance criterion significantly reduces the decoding complexity. For simulations we combine the algebraic hard-input decoding with ordered statistics decoding, which enables near maximum likelihood soft-input decoding for codes of small to medium block lengths.
Generalized Concatenated Codes over Gaussian and Eisenstein Integers for Code-Based Cryptography
(2021)
The code-based McEliece and Niederreiter cryptosystems are promising candidates for post-quantum public-key encryption. Recently, q-ary concatenated codes over Gaussian integers were proposed for the McEliece cryptosystem together with the one-Mannheim error channel, where the error values are limited to Mannheim weight one. Due to the limited error values, the codes over Gaussian integers achieve a higher error correction capability than maximum distance separable (MDS) codes with bounded minimum distance decoding. This higher error correction capability improves the work factor regarding decoding attacks based on information-set decoding. The codes also enable a low complexity decoding algorithm for decoding beyond the guaranteed error correction capability. In this work, we extend this coding scheme to codes over Eisenstein integers. These codes have advantages for the Niederreiter system. Additionally, we propose an improved code construction based on generalized concatenated codes. These codes extent the rate region where the work factor is beneficial compared to MDS codes. Moreover, generalized concatenated codes are more robust against structural attacks than ordinary concatenated codes.
Modular arithmetic over integers is required for many cryptography systems. Montgomeryreduction is an efficient algorithm for the modulo reduction after a multiplication. Typically, Mont-gomery reduction is used for rings of ordinary integers. In contrast, we investigate the modularreduction over rings of Gaussian integers. Gaussian integers are complex numbers where the real andimaginary parts are integers. Rings over Gaussian integers are isomorphic to ordinary integer rings.In this work, we show that Montgomery reduction can be applied to Gaussian integer rings. Twoalgorithms for the precision reduction are presented. We demonstrate that the proposed Montgomeryreduction enables an efficient Gaussian integer arithmetic that is suitable for elliptic curve cryptogra-phy. In particular, we consider the elliptic curve point multiplication according to the randomizedinitial point method which is protected against side-channel attacks. The implementation of thisprotected point multiplication is significantly faster than comparable algorithms over ordinary primefields.
The McEliece cryptosystem is a promising candidate for post-quantum public-key encryption. In this work, we propose q-ary codes over Gaussian integers for the McEliece system and a new channel model. With this one Mannheim error channel, errors are limited to weight one. We investigate the channel capacity of this channel and discuss its relation to the McEliece system. The proposed codes are based on a simple product code construction and have a low complexity decoding algorithm. For the one Mannheim error channel, these codes achieve a higher error correction capability than maximum distance separable codes with bounded minimum distance decoding. This improves the work factor regarding decoding attacks based on information-set decoding.
The performance and reliability of non-volatile NAND flash memories deteriorate as the number of program/erase cycles grows. The reliability also suffers from cell to cell interference, long data retention time, and read disturb. These processes effect the read threshold voltages. The aging of the cells causes voltage shifts which lead to high bit error rates (BER) with fixed pre-defined read thresholds. This work proposes two methods that aim on minimizing the BER by adjusting the read thresholds. Both methods utilize the number of errors detected in the codeword of an error correction code. It is demonstrated that the observed number of errors is a good measure for the voltage shifts and is utilized for the initial calibration of the read thresholds. The second approach is a gradual channel estimation method that utilizes the asymmetrical error probabilities for the one-to-zero and zero-to-one errors that are caused by threshold calibration errors. Both methods are investigated utilizing the mutual information between the optimal read voltage and the measured error values.
Numerical results obtained from flash measurements show that these methods reduce the BER of NAND flash memories significantly.
Four-Dimensional Hurwitz Signal Constellations, Set Partitioning, Detection, and Multilevel Coding
(2021)
The Hurwitz lattice provides the densest four-dimensional packing. This fact has motivated research on four-dimensional Hurwitz signal constellations for optical and wireless communications. This work presents a new algebraic construction of finite sets of Hurwitz integers that is inherently accompanied by a respective modulo operation. These signal constellations are investigated for transmission over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. It is shown that these signal constellations have a better constellation figure of merit and hence a better asymptotic performance over an AWGN channel when compared with conventional signal constellations with algebraic structure, e.g., two-dimensional Gaussian-integer constellations or four-dimensional Lipschitz-integer constellations. We introduce two concepts for set partitioning of the Hurwitz integers. The first method is useful to reduce the computational complexity of the symbol detection. This suboptimum detection approach achieves near-maximum-likelihood performance. In the second case, the partitioning exploits the algebraic structure of the Hurwitz signal constellations. We partition the Hurwitz integers into additive subgroups in a manner that the minimum Euclidean distance of each subgroup is larger than in the original set. This enables multilevel code constructions for the new signal constellations.
Error correction coding for optical communication and storage requires high rate codes that enable high data throughput and low residual errors. Recently, different concatenated coding schemes were proposed that are based on binary BCH codes with low error correcting capabilities. In this work, low-complexity hard- and soft-input decoding methods for such codes are investigated. We propose three concepts to reduce the complexity of the decoder. For the algebraic decoding we demonstrate that Peterson's algorithm can be more efficient than the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm for single, double, and triple error correcting BCH codes. We propose an inversion-less version of Peterson's algorithm and a corresponding decoding architecture. Furthermore, we propose a decoding approach that combines algebraic hard-input decoding with soft-input bit-flipping decoding. An acceptance criterion is utilized to determine the reliability of the estimated codewords. For many received codewords the stopping criterion indicates that the hard-decoding result is sufficiently reliable, and the costly soft-input decoding can be omitted. To reduce the memory size for the soft-values, we propose a bit-flipping decoder that stores only the positions and soft-values of a small number of code symbols. This method significantly reduces the memory requirements and has little adverse effect on the decoding performance.
Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) plays a crucial role in speech communication devices to enable full-duplex communication. AEC algorithms have been studied extensively in the literature. However, device specific details like microphone or loudspeaker configurations are often neglected, despite their impact on the echo attenuation or near-end speech quality. In this work, we propose a method to investigate different loudspeaker-microphone configurations with respect to their contribution to the overall AEC performance. A generic AEC system consisting of an adaptive filter and a Wiener post filter is used for a fair comparison between different setups. We propose the near-end-to-residual-echo ratio (NRER) and the attenuation-of-near-end (AON) as quality measures for the full-duplex AEC performance.
The encoding of antenna patterns with generalized spatial modulation as well as other index modulation techniques require w-out-of-n encoding where all binary vectors of length n have the same weight w. This constant-weight property cannot be obtained by conventional linear coding schemes. In this work, we propose a new class of constant-weight codes that result from the concatenation of convolutional codes with constant-weight block codes. These constant-weight convolutional codes are nonlinear binary trellis codes that can be decoded with the Viterbi algorithm. Some constructed constant-weight convolutional codes are optimum free distance codes. Simulation results demonstrate that the decoding performance with Viterbi decoding is close to the performance of the best-known linear codes. Similarly, simulation results for spatial modulation with a simple on-off keying show a significant coding gain with the proposed coded index modulation scheme.
List decoding for concatenated codes based on the Plotkin construction with BCH component codes
(2021)
Reed-Muller codes are a popular code family based on the Plotkin construction. Recently, these codes have regained some interest due to their close relation to polar codes and their low-complexity decoding. We consider a similar code family, i.e., the Plotkin concatenation with binary BCH component codes. This construction is more flexible regarding the attainable code parameters. In this work, we consider a list-based decoding algorithm for the Plotkin concatenation with BCH component codes. The proposed list decoding leads to a significant coding gain with only a small increase in computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the Plotkin concatenation with the proposed decoding achieves near maximum likelihood decoding performance. This coding scheme can outperform polar codes for moderate code lengths.
Code-based cryptosystems are promising candidates for post-quantum cryptography. Recently, generalized concatenated codes over Gaussian and Eisenstein integers were proposed for those systems. For a channel model with errors of restricted weight, those q-ary codes lead to high error correction capabilities. Hence, these codes achieve high work factors for information set decoding attacks. In this work, we adapt this concept to codes for the weight-one error channel, i.e., a binary channel model where at most one bit-error occurs in each block of m bits. We also propose a low complexity decoding algorithm for the proposed codes. Compared to codes over Gaussian and Eisenstein integers, these codes achieve higher minimum Hamming distances for the dual codes of the inner component codes. This property increases the work factor for a structural attack on concatenated codes leading to higher overall security. For comparable security, the key size for the proposed code construction is significantly smaller than for the classic McEliece scheme based on Goppa codes.
The growing error rates of triple-level cell (TLC) and quadruple-level cell (QLC) NAND flash memories have led to the application of error correction coding with soft-input decoding techniques in flash-based storage systems. Typically, flash memory is organized in pages where the individual bits per cell are assigned to different pages and different codewords of the error-correcting code. This page-wise encoding minimizes the read latency with hard-input decoding. To increase the decoding capability, soft-input decoding is used eventually due to the aging of the cells. This soft-decoding requires multiple read operations. Hence, the soft-read operations reduce the achievable throughput, and increase the read latency and power consumption. In this work, we investigate a different encoding and decoding approach that improves the error correction performance without increasing the number of reference voltages. We consider TLC and QLC flashes where all bits are jointly encoded using a Gray labeling. This cell-wise encoding improves the achievable channel capacity compared with independent page-wise encoding. Errors with cell-wise read operations typically result in a single erroneous bit per cell. We present a coding approach based on generalized concatenated codes that utilizes this property.
Mutual Information Analysis for Generalized Spatial Modulation Systems With Multilevel Coding
(2022)
Generalized Spatial Modulation (GSM) enables a trade-off between very high spectral efficiencies and low hardware costs for massive MIMO systems. This is achieved by transmitting information via the selection of active antennas from a set of available antennas besides the transmission of conventional data symbols. GSM systems have been investigated concerning various aspects like suitable signal constellations, efficient detection algorithms, hardware implementations, spatial precoding, and error control coding. On the other hand, determining the capacity of GSM is challenging because no closed-form expressions have been found so far. This paper investigates the mutual information for different GSM variants. We consider a multilevel coding approach, where the antenna selection and IQ modulation are encoded independently. Combined with multistage decoding, such an approach enables low-complexity capacity-achieving coded modulation. The influence of the data symbols on the mutual information is illuminated. We analyze the portions of mutual information related to antenna selection and the IQ modulation processes which depend on the GSM variant and the signal constellation. Moreover, the potential of spatial modulation for massive MIMO systems with many transmit antennas is investigated. Especially in systems with many transmit antennas much information can be conveyed by antenna selection.
Reed-Muller (RM) codes have recently regained some interest in the context of low latency communications and due to their relation to polar codes. RM codes can be constructed based on the Plotkin construction. In this work, we consider concatenated codes based on the Plotkin construction, where extended Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes are used as component codes. This leads to improved code parameters compared to RM codes. Moreover, this construction is more flexible concerning the attainable code rates. Additionally, new soft-input decoding algorithms are proposed that exploit the recursive structure of the concatenation and the cyclic structure of the component codes. First, we consider the decoding of the cyclic component codes and propose a low complexity hybrid ordered statistics decoding algorithm. Next, this algorithm is applied to list decoding of the Plotkin construction. The proposed list decoding approach achieves near-maximum-likelihood performance for codes with medium lengths. The performance is comparable to state-of-the-art decoders, whereas the complexity is reduced.
In this letter, we present an approach to building a new generalized multistream spatial modulation system (GMSM), where the information is conveyed by the two active antennas with signal indices and using all possible active antenna combinations. The signal constellations associated with these antennas may have different sizes. In addition, four-dimensional hybrid frequency-phase modulated signals are utilized in GMSM. Examples of GMSM systems are given and computer simulation results are presented for transmission over Rayleigh and deep Nakagami- m flat-fading channels when maximum-likelihood detection is used. The presented results indicate a significant improvement of characteristics compared to the best-known similar systems.
Code-based cryptography is a promising candidate for post-quantum public-key encryption. The classic McEliece system uses binary Goppa codes, which are known for their good error correction capability. However, the key generation and decoding procedures of the classic McEliece system have a high computation complexity. Recently, q-ary concatenated codes over Gaussian integers were proposed for the McEliece cryptosystem together with the one-Mannheim error channel, where the error values are limited to Mannheim weight one. For this channel, concatenated codes over Gaussian integers achieve a higher error correction capability than maximum distance separable (MDS) codes with bounded minimum distance decoding. This improves the work factor regarding decoding attacks based on information-set decoding. This work proposes an improved construction for codes over Gaussian integers. These generalized concatenated codes extent the rate region where the work factor is beneficial compared to MDS codes. They allow for shorter public keys for the same level of security as the classic Goppa codes. Such codes are beneficial for lightweight code-based cryptosystems.
Large-scale quantum computers threaten today's public-key cryptosystems. The code-based McEliece and Niederreiter cryptosystems are among the most promising candidates for post-quantum cryptography. Recently, a new class of q-ary product codes over Gaussian integers together with an efficient decoding algorithm were proposed for the McEliece cryptosystems. It was shown that these codes achieve a higher work factor for information-set decoding attacks than maximum distance separable (MDS) codes with comparable length and dimension. In this work, we adapt this q-ary product code construction to codes over Eisenstein integers. We propose a new syndrome decoding method which is applicable for Niederreiter cryptosystems. The code parameters and work factors for information-set decoding are comparable to codes over Gaussian integers. Hence, the new construction is not favorable for the McEliece system. Nevertheless, it is beneficial for the Niederreiter system, where it achieves larger message lengths. While the Niederreiter and McEliece systems have the same level of security, the Niederreiter system can be advantageous for some applications, e.g., it enables digital signatures. The proposed coding scheme is interesting for lightweight Niederreiter cryptosystems and embedded security due to the short code lengths and low decoding complexity.
Automotive computing applications like AI databases, ADAS, and advanced infotainment systems have a huge need for persistent memory. This trend requires NAND flash memories designed for extreme automotive environments. However, the error probability of NAND flash memories has increased in recent years due to higher memory density and production tolerances. Hence, strong error correction coding is needed to meet automotive storage requirements. Many errors can be corrected by soft decoding algorithms. However, soft decoding is very resource-intensive and should be avoided when possible. NAND flash memories are organized in pages, and the error correction codes are usually encoded page-wise to reduce the latency of random reads. This page-wise encoding does not reach the maximum achievable capacity. Reading soft information increases the channel capacity but at the cost of higher latency and power consumption. In this work, we consider cell-wise encoding, which also increases the capacity compared to page-wise encoding. We analyze the cell-wise processing of data in triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash and show the performance gain when using Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes. In addition, we investigate a coding approach with page-wise encoding and cell-wise reading.
Large persistent memory is crucial for many applications in embedded systems and automotive computing like AI databases, ADAS, and cutting-edge infotainment systems. Such applications require reliable NAND flash memories made for harsh automotive conditions. However, due to high memory densities and production tolerances, the error probability of NAND flash memories has risen. As the number of program/erase cycles and the data retention times increase, non-volatile NAND flash memories' performance and dependability suffer. The read reference voltages of the flash cells vary due to these aging processes. In this work, we consider the issue of reference voltage adaption. The considered estimation procedure uses shallow neural networks to estimate the read reference voltages for different life-cycle conditions with the help of histogram measurements. We demonstrate that the training data for the neural networks can be enhanced by using shifted histograms, i.e., a training of the neural networks is possible based on a few measurements of some extreme points used as training data. The trained neural networks generalize well for other life-cycle conditions.
The code-based McEliece cryptosystem is a promising candidate for post-quantum cryptography. The sender encodes a message, using a public scrambled generator matrix, and adds a random error vector. In this work, we consider q-ary codes and restrict the Lee weight of the added error symbols. This leads to an increased error correction capability and a larger work factor for information-set decoding attacks. In particular, we consider codes over an extension field and use the one-Lee error channel, which restricts the error values to Lee weight one. For this channel model, generalized concatenated codes can achieve high error correction capabilities. We discuss the decoding of those codes and the possible gain for decoding beyond the guaranteed error correction capability.
Large-scale quantum computers threaten the security of today's public-key cryptography. The McEliece cryptosystem is one of the most promising candidates for post-quantum cryptography. However, the McEliece system has the drawback of large key sizes for the public key. Similar to other public-key cryptosystems, the McEliece system has a comparably high computational complexity. Embedded devices often lack the required computational resources to compute those systems with sufficiently low latency. Hence, those systems require hardware acceleration. Lately, a generalized concatenated code construction was proposed together with a restrictive channel model, which allows for much smaller public keys for comparable security levels. In this work, we propose a hardware decoder suitable for a McEliece system based on these generalized concatenated codes. The results show that those systems are suitable for resource-constrained embedded devices.
Non-volatile NAND flash memories store information as an electrical charge. Different read reference voltages are applied to read the data. However, the threshold voltage distributions vary due to aging effects like program erase cycling and data retention time. It is necessary to adapt the read reference voltages for different life-cycle conditions to minimize the error probability during readout. In the past, methods based on pilot data or high-resolution threshold voltage histograms were proposed to estimate the changes in voltage distributions. In this work, we propose a machine learning approach with neural networks to estimate the read reference voltages. The proposed method utilizes sparse histogram data for the threshold voltage distributions. For reading the information from triple-level cell (TLC) memories, several read reference voltages are applied in sequence. We consider two histogram resolutions. The simplest histogram consists of the zero-and-one ratios for the hard decision read operation, whereas a higher resolution is obtained by considering the quantization levels for soft-input decoding. This approach does not require pilot data for the voltage adaptation. Furthermore, only a few measurements of extreme points of the threshold voltage distributions are required as training data. Measurements with different conditions verify the proposed approach. The resulting neural networks perform well under other life-cycle conditions.
Spatial modulation (SM) is a low-complexity multiple-input/multiple-output transmission technique that combines index modulation and quadrature amplitude modulation for wireless communications. In this work, we consider the problem of link adaption for generalized spatial modulation (GSM) systems that use multiple active transmit antennas simultaneously. Link adaption algorithms require a real-time estimation of the link quality of the time-variant communication channels, e.g., by means of estimating the mutual information. However, determining the mutual information of SM is challenging because no closed-form expressions have been found so far. Recently, multilayer feedforward neural networks were applied to compute the achievable rate of an index modulation link. However, only a small SM system with two transmit and two receive antennas was considered. In this work, we consider a similar approach but investigate larger GSM systems with multiple active antennas. We analyze the portions of mutual information related to antenna selection and the IQ modulation processes, which depend on the GSM variant and the signal constellation.
Reliability is a crucial aspect of non-volatile NAND flash memories, and it is essential to thoroughly analyze the channel to prevent errors and ensure accurate readout. Es-timating the read reference voltages (RRV s) is a significant challenge due to the multitude of physical effects involved. The question arises which features are useful and necessary for the RRV estimation. Various possible features require specialized hardware or specific readout techniques to be usable. In contrast we consider sparse histograms based on the decision thresholds for hard-input and soft-input decoding. These offer a distinct advantage as they are derived directly from the raw readout data without the need for decoding. This paper focuses on the information-theoretic study of different features, especially on the exploration of the mutual information (MI) between feature vector and RRV. In particular, we investigate the dependency of the MI on the resolution of the histograms. With respect to the RRV estimation, sparse histograms provide sufficient information for near-optimum estimation.