A traditional successive cancellation (SC) decoding algorithm produces error propagation in the decoding process. In order to improve the SC decoding performance, it is important to solve the error propagation. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm combining reinforcement learning and SC flip (SCF) decoding of polar codes, which is called a Q-learning-assisted SCF (QLSCF) decoding algorithm. The proposed QLSCF decoding algorithm uses reinforcement learning technology to select candidate bits for the SC flipping decoding. We establish a reinforcement learning model for selecting candidate bits, and the agent selects candidate bits to decode the information sequence. In our scheme, the decoding delay caused by the metric ordering can be removed during the decoding process. Simulation results demonstrate that the decoding delay of the proposed algorithm is reduced compared with the SCF decoding algorithm, based on critical set without loss of performance.
Keywords: Q-learning-assisted decoding; bit-flipping decoding; polar codes; reinforcement learning; successive cancellation.