Stopping criteria for turbo decoder

1. A wireless device, comprising:

a radio;

a processing element coupled to the radio;

wherein the radio and the processing element are configured to:

wirelessly receive turbo coded data;

perform turbo decoding on the turbo coded data,

wherein performing turbo decoding uses one or more negative stopping criteria for early termination of unsuccessful turbo decoding for each code block of the turbo coded data, wherein the one or more negative stopping criteria are selected to terminate the unsuccessful turbo decoding of a code block early under poor wireless medium conditions, wherein the one or more negative stopping criteria are based at least in part on computed a priori likelihood ratios of information bits of the turbo coded data; and

terminate the unsuccessful turbo decoding of a code block early if the one or more negative stopping criteria for the code block are met.

2. The wireless device of claim 1 ,

wherein a first negative stopping criterion comprises a value of a metric being below a first threshold after a first number of turbo decoding iterations.

3. The wireless device of claim 2 , wherein a second negative stopping criterion comprises the value of the metric being below a second threshold after a second number of turbo decoding iterations.

4. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein a negative stopping criterion of the one or more negative stopping criteria comprises a value of a metric being below a variable threshold at a turbo decoding iteration, wherein the variable threshold is a function of the turbo decoding iteration.

5. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein a negative stopping criterion of the one or more negative stopping criteria comprises a value of a metric at a turbo decoding iteration being below or equal to the value of the metric at a preceding turbo decoding iteration, for any turbo decoding iteration starting at a predetermined turbo decoding iteration.

6. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein a negative stopping criterion of the one or more negative stopping criteria comprises a value of a metric at a turbo decoding iteration being below or equal to the value of the metric at a preceding turbo decoding iteration, for any of a selected subset of turbo decoding iterations.

7. The wireless device of claim 1 ,

wherein the one or more negative stopping criteria are based at least in part on an average absolute extrinsic information (AAEXI) metric, wherein the AAEXI metric is defined as:

1

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L

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wherein C comprises a number of bits in a code block,

wherein L e comprises a likelihood ratio of an information bit in a code block as computed by a constituent turbo decoder and used as a priori likelihood ratio of the information bit by the other constituent turbo decoder in its next iteration.

8. The wireless device of claim 1 ,

wherein performing turbo decoding also uses one or more positive stopping criteria for early termination of the turbo decoding for each code block of the turbo coded data, wherein a first positive stopping criterion comprises an appended cyclic redundancy check value of a code block successfully checking against a cyclic redundancy check value calculated from decoded information bits of the code block.

9. The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the radio and the processing element are further configured to:

monitor a metric that is based at least in part on computed a priori likelihood ratios of information bits of the turbo coded data; and

select when to check whether a positive stopping criterion is met based at least in part on a value of the metric.

10. The wireless device of claim 1 ,

wherein the one or more negative stopping criteria are selected based at least in part on design characteristics of one or more of the wireless device or a wireless device from which the turbo coded data was received.

11. An apparatus, comprising a processing element configured to cause a wireless device to:

wirelessly receive a code block of turbo coded data;

performing turbo decoding of the code block of turbo coded data for up to a predetermined maximum duration;

determine whether any of one or more positive stopping criteria or one or more negative stopping criteria for the turbo decoding have been met prior to the predetermined maximum duration,

wherein the turbo decoding of the code block of turbo coded data is stopped upon meeting a positive stopping criterion, a negative stopping criterion, or the predetermined maximum duration,

wherein the one or more positive stopping criteria, the one or more negative stopping criteria, and the predetermined maximum duration are configured to cause a duration of the turbo decoding of the code block to vary in a manner correlated with wireless medium conditions when receiving the code block of turbo coded data, and

in response to one or more negative stopping criteria being met, terminate turbo decoding without successfully decoding the turbo coded data.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 ,

wherein the one or more positive stopping criteria, the one or more negative stopping criteria, and the predetermined maximum duration are configured to cause the duration of the turbo decoding of the code block to be shorter in poor and good wireless medium conditions than in moderate medium conditions,

wherein the poor wireless medium conditions comprise a signal to interference to noise (SINR) region below a first threshold,

wherein the good wireless medium conditions comprise a SINR region above a second threshold,

wherein the moderate wireless medium conditions comprise a SINR region between the first threshold and the second threshold.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 ,

wherein the predetermined maximum duration is selected based at least in part on a device class of a device from which the code block of turbo coded data is received,

wherein a higher predetermined maximum duration is selected when the device class of the device from which the code block of turbo coded data comprises a link budget limited device class than when the device class of the device from which the code block of turbo coded data comprises a non link budget limited device class.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 ,

wherein the predetermined maximum duration is selected based at least in part on wireless medium conditions between the wireless device and the device from which the code block of turbo coded data is received,

wherein a higher predetermined maximum duration is selected when the wireless medium conditions are poor than when the wireless medium conditions are good.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 ,

wherein the one or more negative stopping criteria comprise a metric associated with probability of eventual successful decoding of turbo coded data being below a predetermined threshold at a predetermined turbo coding iteration.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing element is further configured to cause the wireless device to:

wirelessly receive a plurality of additional code blocks of turbo coded data; and

perform turbo decoding of each of the plurality of additional code blocks of turbo coded data.

17. A method, comprising:

by a turbo decoding module of a wireless device:

receiving a plurality of code blocks of turbo coded data;

performing turbo decoding of each code block of the plurality of code blocks of turbo coded data, comprising performing up to a predetermined maximum number of turbo decoding iterations on each code block; and

determining, for each code block, whether any positive or negative stopping criteria have been met,

wherein turbo decoding of a respective code block of turbo coded data is stopped upon meeting a positive stopping criterion, a negative stopping criterion, or the predetermined maximum number of turbo decoding iterations,

wherein the negative stopping criteria and the predetermined maximum number of turbo decoding iterations are configured to cause turbo decoding of a code block to have a shorter duration if the wireless device is experiencing signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) in a first range of SINR values than if the wireless device is experiencing SINR in a second range of SINR values, wherein the first range of SINR values is lower than the second range of SINR values, and

in response to a negative stopping criteria being met, stop turbo decoding of the respective code block of turbo coded data without successfully decoding the respective code block of turbo coded data.

18. The method of claim 17 ,

wherein the positive stopping criterion and the predetermined maximum number of turbo coding iterations are configured to cause the turbo decoding to have a shorter duration if the wireless device is experiencing SINR in a third range of SINR values than if the communication device is experiencing SINR in the second range of SINR values, wherein the third range of SINR values is higher than the second range of SINR values.

19. The method of claim 17 ,

wherein the negative stopping criteria are selected to cause stopping of turbo decoding of a code block if probability of successful decoding of the code block is deemed below a predetermined threshold.

20. The method of claim 17 ,

wherein the negative stopping criteria are based at least in part on comparing a value of a metric with one or more threshold values, wherein the metric is calculated based on computed a priori likelihood ratios of information bits in a code block exchanged between constituent turbo decoders of the turbo decoding module.