Generalized IRA Erasure Correcting Codes for Hybrid Iterative/Maximum Likelihood Decoding

The design of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes under hybrid iterative / maximum likelihood decoding is addressed for the binary erasure channel (BEC). Specifically, we focus on generalized irregular repeat-accumulate (GeIRA) codes, which offer both efficient encoding and design flexibility. We show that properly designed GeIRA codes tightly approach the performance of an ideal maximum distance separable (MDS) code, even for short block sizes. For example, our (2048,1024) code reaches a codeword error rate of 10^-5 at channel erasure probability isin= 0.450, where an ideal (2048,1024) MDS code would reach the same error rate at isin = 0.453.     

Accumulate–Repeat–Accumulate Codes: Capacity-Achieving Ensembles of Systematic Codes for the Erasure Channel With Bounded Complexity

This paper introduces ensembles of systematic accumulate-repeat-accumulate (ARA) codes which asymptotically achieve capacity on the binary erasure channel (BEC) with bounded complexity, per information bit, of encoding and decoding. It also introduces symmetry properties which play a central role in the construction of new capacity-achieving ensembles for the BEC. The results here improve on the tradeoff between performance and complexity provided by previous constructions of capacity-achieving code ensembles defined on graphs. The superiority of ARA codes with moderate to large block length is exemplified by computer simulations which compare their performance with those of previously reported capacity-achieving ensembles of low-density parity-check (LDPC) and irregular repeat-accumulate (IRA) codes. ARA codes also have the advantage of being systematic.     

Finite-length analysis of low-density parity-check codes on thebinary erasure channel

In this paper, we are concerned with the finite-length analysis of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes when used over the binary erasure channel (BEC). The main result is an expression for the exact average bit and block erasure probability for a given regular ensemble of LDPC codes when decoded iteratively. We also give expressions for upper bounds on the average bit and block erasure probability for regular LDPC ensembles and the standard random ensemble under maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding. Finally, we present what we consider to be the most important open problems in this area     

On decoding of low-density parity-check codes over the binary erasure channel

This paper investigates decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the binary erasure channel (BEC). We study the iterative and maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding of LDPC codes on this channel. We derive bounds on the ML decoding of LDPC codes on the BEC. We then present an improved decoding algorithm. The proposed algorithm has almost the same complexity as the standard iterative decoding. However, it has better performance. Simulations show that we can decrease the error rate by several orders of magnitude using the proposed algorithm. We also provide some graph-theoretic properties of different decoding algorithms of LDPC codes over the BEC which we think are useful to better understand the LDPC decoding methods, in particular, for finite-length codes.     

LP Decoding Corrects a Constant Fraction of Errors

We show that for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes whose Tanner graphs have sufficient expansion, the linear programming (LP) decoder of Feldman, Karger, and Wainwright can correct a constant fraction of errors. A random graph will have sufficient expansion with high probability, and recent work shows that such graphs can be constructed efficiently. A key element of our method is the use of a dual witness: a zero-valued dual solution to the decoding linear program whose existence proves decoding success. We show that as long as no more than a certain constant fraction of the bits are flipped by the channel, we can find a dual witness. This new method can be used for proving bounds on the performance of any LP decoder, even in a probabilistic setting. Our result implies that the word error rate of the LP decoder decreases exponentially in the code length under the binary-symmetric channel (BSC). This is the first such error bound for LDPC codes using an analysis based on "pseudocodewords." Recent work by Koetter and Vontobel shows that LP decoding and min-sum decoding of LDPC codes are closely related by the "graph cover" structure of their pseudocodewords; in their terminology, our result implies that that there exist families of LDPC codes where the minimum BSC pseudoweight grows linearly in the block length     

Generalized LDPC codes and generalized stopping sets

A generalized low-density parity check code (GLDPC) is a low-density parity check code in which the constraint nodes of the code graph are block codes, rather than single parity checks. In this paper, we study GLDPC codes which have BCH or Reed-Solomon codes as subcodes under bounded distance decoding (BDD). The performance of the proposed scheme is investigated in the limit case of an infinite length (cycle free) code used over a binary erasure channel (BEC) and the corresponding thresholds for iterative decoding are derived. The performance of the proposed scheme for finite code lengths over a BEC is investigated as well. Structures responsible for decoding failures are defined and a theoretical analysis over the ensemble of GLDPC codes which yields exact bit and block error rates of the ensemble average is derived. Unfortunately this study shows that GLDPC codes do not compare favorably with their LDPC counterpart over the BEC. Fortunately, it is also shown that under certain conditions, objects identified in the analysis of GLDPC codes over a BEC and the corresponding theoretical results remain useful to derive tight lower bounds on the performance of GLDPC codes over a binary symmetric channel (BSC). Simulation results show that the proposed method yields competitive performance with a good decoding complexity trade-off for the BSC.     

Semi‐random LDPC codes for CDMA communication over non‐linear band‐limited satellite channels

This paper considers the application of low‐density parity check (LDPC) error correcting codes to code division multiple access (CDMA) systems over satellite links. The adapted LDPC codes are selected from a special class of semi‐random (SR) constructions characterized by low encoder complexity, and their performance is optimized by removing short cycles from the code bipartite graphs. Relative performance comparisons with turbo product codes (TPC) for rate 1/2 and short‐to‐moderate block sizes show some advantage for SR‐LDPC, both in terms of bit error rate and complexity requirements. CDMA systems using these SR‐LDPC codes and operating over non‐linear, band‐limited satellite links are analysed and their performance is investigated for a number of signal models and codes parameters. The numerical results show that SR‐LDPC codes can offer good capacity improvements in terms of supportable number of users at a given bit error performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Waterfall performance analysis of finite-length LDPC codes on symmetric channels

An efficient method for analyzing the performance of finite-length low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes in the waterfall region, when transmission takes place on a memoryless binary-input output-symmetric channel is proposed. This method is based on studying the variations of the channel quality around its expected value when observed during the transmission of a finite-length codeword. We model these variations with a single parameter. This parameter is then viewed as a random variable and its probability distribution function is obtained. Assuming that a decoding failure is the result of an observed channel worse than the code?s decoding threshold, the block error probability of finite-length LDPC codes under different decoding algorithms is estimated. Using an extrinsic information transfer chart analysis, the bit error probability is obtained from the block error probability. Different parameters can be used for modeling the channel variations. In this work, two of such parameters are studied. Through examples, it is shown that this method can closely predict the performance of LDPC codes of a few thousand bits or longer in the waterfall region.     

基于初等数论的圈长8规则准循环LDPC码

This paper is concerned with (3, n ) and (4, n ) regular quasi-cyclic Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) code constructions from elementary number theory. Given the column weight, we determine the shift values of the circulant permutation matrices via arithmetic analysis. The proposed constructions of quasi-cyclic LDPC codes achieve the following main advantages simultaneously: 1) our methods are constructive in the sense that we avoid any searching process; 2) our methods ensure no four or six cycles in the bipartite graphs corresponding to the LDPC codes; 3) our methods are direct constructions of quasi-cyclic LDPC codes which do not use any other quasi-cyclic LDPC codes of small length like component codes or any other algorithms/cyclic codes like building block; 4)the computations of the parameters involved are based on elementary number theory, thus very simple and fast. Simulation results show that the constructed regular codes of high rates perform almost 1.25 dB above Shannon limit and have no error floor down to the bit-error rate of 10-6 .     

高性能时不变LDPC卷积码构造算法研究

该文基于由QC-LDPC码获得时不变LDPC卷积码的环同构方法,设计了用有限域上元素直接获得时不变LDPC卷积码多项式矩阵的新算法。以MDS卷积码为例,给出了一个具体的构造过程。所提构造算法可确保所获得的时不变LDPC卷积码具有快速编码特性、最大可达编码记忆以及设计码率。基于滑动窗口的BP译码算法在AWGN信道上的仿真结果表明,该码具有较低的误码平台和较好的纠错性能。     

A comparison of known codes, random codes, and the best codes

This paper calculates new bounds on the size of the performance gap between random codes and the best possible codes. The first result shows that, for large block sizes, the ratio of the error probability of a random code to the sphere-packing lower bound on the error probability of every code on the binary symmetric channel (BSC) is small for a wide range of useful crossover probabilities. Thus even far from capacity, random codes have nearly the same error performance as the best possible long codes. The paper also demonstrates that a small reduction k-k˜ in the number of information bits conveyed by a codeword will make the error performance of an (n,k˜) random code better than the sphere-packing lower bound for an (n,k) code as long as the channel crossover probability is somewhat greater than a critical probability. For example, the sphere-packing lower bound for a long (n,k), rate 1/2, code will exceed the error probability of an (n,k˜) random code if k-k˜>10 and the crossover probability is between 0.035 and 0.11=H^-1(1/2). Analogous results are presented for the binary erasure channel (BEC) and the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The paper also presents substantial numerical evaluation of the performance of random codes and existing standard lower bounds for the BEC, BSC, and the AWGN channel. These last results provide a useful standard against which to measure many popular codes including turbo codes, e.g., there exist turbo codes that perform within 0.6 dB of the bounds over a wide range of block lengths     

An analysis of the block error probability performance of iterative decoding

Asymptotic iterative decoding performance is analyzed for several classes of iteratively decodable codes when the block length of the codes N and the number of iterations I go to infinity. Three classes of codes are considered. These are Gallager's regular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, Tanner's generalized LDPC (GLDPC) codes, and the turbo codes due to Berrou et al. It is proved that there exist codes in these classes and iterative decoding algorithms for these codes for which not only the bit error probability P/sub b/, but also the block (frame) error probability P/sub B/, goes to zero as N and I go to infinity.     

Quasi-cyclic generalized ldpc codes with low error floors

In this paper, a novel methodology for designing structured generalized LDPC (G-LDPC) codes is presented. The proposed design results in quasi-cyclic G-LDPC codes for which efficient encoding is feasible through shift-register-based circuits. The structure imposed on the bipartite graphs, together with the choice of simple component codes, leads to a class of codes suitable for fast iterative decoding. A pragmatic approach to the construction of G-LDPC codes is proposed. The approach is based on the substitution of check nodes in the protograph of a low-density parity-check code with stronger nodes based, for instance, on Hamming codes. Such a design approach, which we call LDPC code doping, leads to low-rate quasi-cyclic G-LDPC codes with excellent performance in both the error floor and waterfall regions on the additive white Gaussian noise channel.     

具有低编码复杂度准循环扩展LDPC码的构造方法

PEG(Progressive-Edge-Growth)算法是迄今为止构造性能优异的LDPC中短码的一种有效构造方法,然而直接采用该算法构造的LDPC码的编码复杂度正比于码长的平方,这是其实用化过程中的一个瓶颈。针对这一问题,提出一种具有低编码复杂度和低错误平层的准循环扩展LDPC码的构造方法。该算法在PEG算法基础上,先构造出近似下三角结构的半随机基矩阵,然后再对基矩阵进行扩展,该方法可以在不改变基矩阵的度分布比例情况下,有效消除短环。仿真结果表明,所提出的方法构造的LDPC码比原始的PEG算法构造的随机LDPC码具有更低的错误平层,而且编码复杂度更低,更易于硬件实现。     

低密度奇偶校验码码字构造的消环算法

低密度奇偶校验码(LDPC)的性能取决于多种因素,包括度分布对、码字的长度以及环的分布。环的存在会影响LDPC码的译码门限和误码平层,尤其是长度比较小的环对LDPC码的性能影响很大。因此,有必要在构造LDPC码时消去长度比较小的环。文中提供了一种有效的消环算法,降低了LDPC码的误码平层。     

Unequal Error Protection Using Partially Regular LDPC Codes

In this paper, we propose a scheme to construct low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that are suitable for unequal error protection (UEP). We derive density evolution (DE) formulas for the proposed unequal error protecting LDPC ensembles over the binary erasure channel (BEC). Using the DE formulas, we optimize the codes. For the finite-length cases, we compare our codes with some other LDPC codes, the time-sharing method, and a previous work on UEP using LDPC codes. Simulation results indicate the superiority of the proposed design methodology for UEP     

Structured low-density parity-check codes

This article describes the different methods to design regular low density parity-check (LDPC) codes with large girth. In graph terms, this corresponds to designing bipartite undirected regular graphs with large girth. Large girth speeds the convergence of iterative decoding and improves the performance at least in the high SNR range, by slowing down the onsetting of the error floor. We reviewed several existing constructions from exhaustive search to highly structured designs based on Euclidean and projective finite geometries and combinatorial designs. We describe GB and TS LDPC codes and compared the BER performance with large girth to the BER performance of random codes. These studies confirm that in the high SNR regime these codes with high girth exhibit better BER performance. The regularity of the codes provides additional advantages that we did not explore in this article like the simplicity of their hardware implementation and fast encoding.     

Parity-check density versus performance of binary linear block codes over memoryless symmetric channels

We derive lower bounds on the density of parity-check matrices of binary linear codes which are used over memoryless binary-input output-symmetric (MBIOS) channels. The bounds are expressed in terms of the gap between the rate of these codes for which reliable communications is achievable and the channel capacity; they are valid for every sequence of binary linear block codes if there exists a decoding algorithm under which the average bit-error probability vanishes. For every MBIOS channel, we construct a sequence of ensembles of regular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, so that an upper bound on the asymptotic density of their parity-check matrices scales similarly to the lower bound. The tightness of the lower bound is demonstrated for the binary erasure channel by analyzing a sequence of ensembles of right-regular LDPC codes which was introduced by Shokrollahi, and which is known to achieve the capacity of this channel. Under iterative message-passing decoding, we show that this sequence of ensembles is asymptotically optimal (in a sense to be defined in this paper), strengthening a result of Shokrollahi. Finally, we derive lower bounds on the bit-error probability and on the gap to capacity for binary linear block codes which are represented by bipartite graphs, and study their performance limitations over MBIOS channels. The latter bounds provide a quantitative measure for the number of cycles of bipartite graphs which represent good error-correction codes.     

Joint channel-state estimation and decoding of low-density parity-check codes on the two-state noiseless/useless BSC block interference channel

We apply the density-evolution technique to determine the thresholds of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes when the sum-product algorithm is employed to perform joint channel-state estimation and decoding. The channel considered is the two-state noiseless/useless binary symmetric channel (BSC) block interference channel, where a block of h consecutive symbols shares the same channel state, which is either a noiseless BSC (crossover probability 0) or a useless BSC (crossover probability 1/2). The channel state is selected independently and at random from block to block, according to a known prior distribution. The threshold of the joint channel-state estimation/decoding scheme when used over such a channel is shown to be greatly superior to that of a decoder that makes no attempt to estimate the channel state. These results are also confirmed by simulation. The maximum-likelihood (ML) performance of LDPC codes when used over this channel is investigated. Lower bounds on the error exponents of regular LDPC codes, when ML decoded, are shown to be close to the random coding channel error exponent when the LDPC variable node degree is high.     

LDPC码误码平台研究进展

低密度奇偶校验(LDPC)码在迭代译码下具有优越的性能,但是在高信噪比区呈现出误码平台(error floor)现象.综合分析了低密度奇偶校验码的误码平台现象及其产生的原因,重点描述了陷阱集及其对LDPC码误码平台的影响,同时阐述了估计和降低LDPC码误码平台的方法,并对今后LDPC码误码平台研究的重点和方向提出了展望.