Balanced Low-Complexity and Flexible Error-Correction List Flip Decoding for Polar Codes

Benefiting from performance advantages under short code lengths, polar codes are well-suited for certain scenarios, such as the future Internet of Things (IoT) applications that require high reliability and low power. Existing list flip decoders can efficiently further enhance the error-correction performance of polar codes with finite code lengths, particularly the dynamic successive cancellation list flip (D-SCLF) decoder with flexible high-order error-correction capability (FHECC). However, to the best of our knowledge, current list flip decoders cannot effectively balance complexity and error-correction efficiency. To address this, we propose a parity-check-aided D-SCLF (PC-DSCLF) decoder. This decoder, based on FHECC and the characteristics of the list flip decoding process, introduces a simplified flip metric and a hybrid check scheme, along with a decoding method that supports the check scheme, enabling it to retain FHECC while achieving low complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed PC-DSCLF decoder achieves up to a 51.1\% average complexity reduction compared to the D-SCLF algorithm with distributed CRC for $PC(512, 256+24)$