Polar codes for the m-user multiple access channels

Abstract: Polar codes are constructed for m-user multiple access channels (MAC) whose input alphabet size is a prime number. The block error probability under successive cancelation decoding decays exponentially with the square root of the block length. Although the sum capacity is achieved by this coding scheme, some points in the symmetric capacity region may not be achieved. In the case where the channel is a combination of linear channels, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition characterizing the channels whose symmetric capacity region is preserved upon the polarization process. We also provide a sufficient condition for having a total loss in the dominant face.