On the Logical Computational Complexity Analysis of Turbo Decoding Algorithms for the LTE Standards

Evaluating the computational complexity of decoders is a very important aspect in the area of Error Control Coding. However, most evaluations have been performed based on hardware implementations. In this paper, different decoding algorithms for binary Turbo codes which are used in LTE standards are investigated. Based on the different mathematical operations in the diverse equations, the computational complexity is derived in terms of the number of binary logical operations. This work is important since it demonstrates the computational complexity breakdown at the binary logic level as it is not always evident to have access to hardware implementations for research purposes. Also, in contrast to comparing different Mathematical operations, comparing binary logic operations provides a standard pedestal in view to achieve a fair comparative analysis for computational complexity. The usage of the decoding method with fewer number of binary logical operations significantly reduces the computational complexity which in turn leads to a more energy efficient/power saving implementation. Results demonstrate the variation in computational complexities when using different algorithms for Turbo decoding as well as with the incorporation of Sign Difference Ratio (SDR) and Regression-based extrinsic information scaling and stopping mechanisms. When considering the conventional decoding mechanisms and streams of 16 bits in length, Method 3 uses 0.0065% more operations in total as compared to Method 1. Furthermore, Method 2 uses only 0.0035% of the total logical complexity required with Method 1. These computational complexity analysis at the binary logical level can be further used with other error correcting codes adopted in different communication standards.