Bidirectional Fano algorithm for high throughput sequential decoding

Various techniques, such as bidirectional search, have been employed in sequential decoding to reduce the decoding delay. In this paper, a bidirectional Fano algorithm (BFA) is proposed, in which a forward decoder (FD) and a backward decoder (BD) search in the opposite direction simultaneously. It is shown that the proposed BFA can reduce the average decoding delay by at least 50% compared to the unidirectional Fano algorithm (UFA). Due to the reduction in the variability of the computational effort by using bidirectional search, there is even higher decoding throughput improvement at low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR). For example at Eb/No=3dB, there is 300% throughput improvement by using the BFA decoding compared to the conventional UFA decoding. The proposed BFA decoding technique can be employed in very high throughput wireless communication systems with low hardware complexity and power consumption.