S-72.311 Postgraduate Course in Communications Engineering (6cr) P V, spring 2005
The theme of this seminar is low-density parity-check
codes (LDPC codes), a class of codes that was introduced by
Bob Gallager—and therefore also called
Gallager codes—in his PhD thesis
already in the early 1960s
but was forgotten for many decades. When turbo codes became a
hot topic in the 1990s, people had a new look at LDPC codes, and
it turned out that LDPC codes indeed can be used to get close to
channel capacity.
See this page for a demonstration of decoding LDPC codes!
Two works form the core of this
course: Gallager's thesis and a recent (highly praised) book by
David MacKay. Both can be downloaded electronically, but
MacKay's book is fortunately not too expensive so ordering it
might be worth taking into consideration. MacKay's book also
contains many interesting parts that are not considered in this
course. We follow the roadmap
"Advanced Course on Information Theory and Coding"
shown in the Preface, which, quoting MacKay, is for
"a course aimed at an understanding of state-of-the-art
error-correcting codes."
The seminar language is English. Each week there are
three 45-minute presentations, and each student should
give three presentations in total. Moreover, the students
are given weekly home assignments, based on which the mark
of the course will be given. The students should take part
in at least two thirds of the seminars (9/14).
If you would like to have any information regarding
this course, do not hesitate to contact the teacher or
the assistant. WWWTopi is not utilized.
- Prerequisites: Basic studies in telecommunications
(master's students in their final year are very welcome).
The course
S-72.341 Coding Methods is strongly recommended; it
can be taken along this course and can also be included in the
postgraduate studies.
- Literature:
D. J. C. MacKay,
Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003;
R. G. Gallager,
Low-Density Parity-Check Codes,
PhD thesis, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1963;
journal and conference articles.
- Seminar: Thursdays 15–18, room E208B,
first gathering: 20.1.2005.
-
Seminar schedule.
- Teacher: Prof.
Patric Östergård, room I447B,
tel. 451 2341, e-mail: Patric.OstergardQhut.fi (Q=@)
- Assistant:
Vesa Vaskelainen, room I447,
tel. 451 2363, e-mail: vvaskelaQcc.hut.fi (Q=@)
- To pass the course:
Three seminar presentations, home
assignments, attendance in seminar.
Last update: January 11, 2005.