Channel Coding at Finite Blocklength and Its Application in 6G URLLC

Abstract

To support mission-critical applications, such as factory automation and autonomous driving, the ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) is adopted in the fifth generation (5G) mobile communications network, which requires high level of reliability and low latency. Naturally, URLLC in the future 6G is expected to have a better capability than its 5G version which poses an unprecedented challenge to us. Fortunately, the potential solution can still be found in the well-known classical Shannon information theory. Since the latency constraint can be represented equivalently by blocklength, channel coding at finite blocklength plays an important role in the theoretic analysis of URLLC. Applying these achievements in rapidly development of massive MIMO techniques gives rise to a new theory on space time exchanging. It tells us that channel coding can also be performed in space domain, since it is capable of providing the same coding rate as that in time domain. This space time exchanging theory points out an exciting and feasible direction for us to further reduce latency in 6G URLLC.