Learning Channel Codes from Data: Performance Guarantees in the Finite Blocklength Regime

Abstract: This paper examines the maximum code rate achievable by a data-driven communication system over some unknown discrete memoryless channel in the finite blocklength regime. A class of channel codes, called learning-based channel codes, is first introduced. Learning-based channel codes include a learning algorithm to transform the training data into a pair of encoding and decoding functions that satisfy some statistical reliability constraint. Data-dependent achievability and converse bounds in the non-asymptotic regime are established for this class of channel codes. It is shown analytically that the asymptotic expansion of the bounds for the maximum achievable code rate of the learning-based channel codes are tight for sufficiently large training data.