Multiple CRC-aided variable successive cancellation list decoder of polar codes

In order to change the path candidates, reduce the average list size, and make more paths pass cyclic redundancy check (CRC), multiple CRC-aided variable successive cancellation list (SCL) decoding algorithm is proposed. In the decoding algorithm, the whole unfrozen bits are divided into several parts and each part is concatenated with a corresponding CRC code, except the last part which is concatenated with a whole unfrozen CRC code. Each CRC detection is performed, and only those satisfying each part CRC become the path candidates. A variable list is setup for each part to reduce the time complexity. Variable list size is setup for each part to reduce the time complexity until one survival path in each part can pass its corresponding CRC. The results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the average list size, and the frame error rate (FER) performance, and has a better performance with the increase of the part number.