Two Rank Sorting for Successive Cancellation List Decoding of Polar Codes

In the successive cancellation list decoding of polar codes, the metric sorting is mostly responsible for the total delay. We propose a two-rank-sorter method to save hardware resources and avoid conducting redundant sorting operations on measurements. It includes two rank sorters as well as a clean half sorter. The rank sorter approach differs from previous compare-and-exchange units (CAEUs) in that it produces an ordered output using a logical comparator. The evaluation results demonstrate that when the list size is modest, the suggested design performs better in terms of hardware complexity than the current sorting architecture.