1. Introduction

AFF3CT is a toolbox dedicated to the Forward Error Correction (FEC or channel coding). It is written in C++ and it supports a large range of codes: from the well-spread Turbo codes to the new Polar codes including the Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes. AFF3CT includes many tools but the most important ones are:

a standalone simulator to simulate communication chains (c.f. Fig. 1.1) based on a Monte Carlo method,

a toolbox or a library that can be used through a well-documented API.

Fig. 1.1 The communication chain.

The simulator targets high speed simulations and extensively uses parallel techniques like SIMD, multi-threading and multi-nodes programming models. Below, a list of the features that motivated the creation of the simulator:

1. reproduce state-of-the-art decoding performances,
2. explore various channel code configurations, find new trade-offs,
3. prototype hardware implementation (fixed-point receivers, hardware in the loop tools),
4. reuse tried and tested modules and add yours,
5. alternative to MATLAB, if you seek to reduce simulations time.

AFF3CT was first intended to be a simulator but as it developed, the need to reuse sub-parts of the code intensified: the library was born. Below is a list of possible applications for the library:

1. build custom communication chains that are not possible with the simulator,
2. facilitate hardware prototyping,
3. enable various modules to be used in SDR contexts.