Decoding Algorithms for Binary U-UV Codes: A Unified Survey of Performance and Complexity

IEEE Access. 2026. Vol. 14. P. 104662–104679.

Ivanov F., Kotov F.

U-UV codes, based on the Plotkin (U, U + V) construction, provide a unified framework that includes polar and Reed–Muller codes and enables flexible design through the choice of component codes. While modern capacity-approaching codes achieve excellent performance at large block lengths, their efficiency at short and moderate lengths remains limited, especially under low-latency constraints. Due to their recursive structure, U-UV codes offer improved performance at short and moderate block lengths, while maintaining low decoding latency. Despite this potential, a unified comparison of decoding methods has been lacking. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of decoding methods for binary U-UV codes based on the Plotkin (U,U+V) construction. We review the principles of the U-UV construction and summarize the development of decoding algorithms, from classical successive cancellation and multistage decoding to modern list-based approaches. To the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive survey of decoding methods for U-UV codes has been published to date. This paper fills this gap by providing a unified comparison of decoding algorithms in terms of both error-correction performance and computational complexity. The analysis shows that list-based decoding methods significantly outperform classical successive cancellation decoding at moderate code lengths, while hybrid approaches offer favorable complexity-performance trade-offs. These results highlight the importance of decoder selection depending on application constraints.

Keywords: decoding, channel coding, error correction codes, Plotkin construction, U-UV codes