A statistical-based density evolution algorithm is proposed for nonbinary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. It is applicable to both regular and irregular codes under study. The algorithm proposed serves as a tool to analyze the performance limit for iterative decoding of nonbinary LDPC codes, which in turn guides code design. Specifically, it provides approximated evaluations of convergence thresholds for codes given specific degree distributions. It is shown that, for a class of quasi-cyclic (QC) structured extended irregular repeat-accumulate (SeIRA) nonbinary LDPC codes, degree distributions can be optimized via the algorithm proposed. Simulation results exhibit that the nonbinary LDPC codes designed outperform the optimized binary LDPC codes on the AWGN channel with similar code length and rate in terms of bits. Performance gap between the binary and nonbinary LDPC codes is larger in the scenario of higher order modulation.
A statistical-based density evolution algorithm is proposed for nonbinary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. It is applicable to both regular and irregular codes under study. The algorithm proposed serves as a tool to analyze the performance limit for iterative decoding of nonbinary LDPC codes, which in turn guides code design. Specifically, it provides approximated evaluations of convergence thresholds for codes given specific degree distributions. It is shown that, for a class of quasi-cyclic (QC) structured extended irregular repeat-accumulate (SeIRA) nonbinary LDPC codes, degree distributions can be optimized via the algorithm proposed. Simulation results exhibit that the nonbinary LDPC codes designed outperform the optimized binary LDPC codes on the AWGN channel with similar code length and rate in terms of bits. Performance gap between the binary and nonbinary LDPC codes is larger in the scenario of higher order modulation.
This paper extends the work on density evolution for binary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with Gaussian approximation to LDPC codes over GF(q) . We first generalize the definition of channel symmetry for nonbinary inputs to include q-ary phase-shift keying (PSK) modulated channels for prime q and binary-modulated channels for q that is a power of 2. For the well-defined q-ary-input symmetric-output channel, we prove that under the Gaussian assumption, the density distribution for messages undergoing decoding is fully characterized by (q-1) quantities. Assuming uniform edge weights, we further show that the density of messages computed by the check node decoder (CND) is fully defined by a single number. We then present the approximate density evolution for regular and irregular LDPC codes, and show that the (q-1) -dimensional integration involved can be simplified using a dimensionality reduction algorithm for the important case of q=2p. Through application of approximate density evolution and linear programming, we optimize the degree distribution of LDPC codes over GF(3) and GF(4). The optimized irregular LDPC codes demonstrate performance close to the Shannon capacity for long codewords. We also design GF(q) codes for high-order modulation by using the idea of a channel adapter. We find that codes designed in this fashion outperform those optimized specifically for the binary additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel for a short codewords and a spectral efficiency of 2 bits per channel use (b/cu).
Time-invariant hybrid (HscrTI) decoding of irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes is studied. Focusing on HscrTIalgorithms with majority-based (MB) binary message-passing constituents, we use density evolution (DE) and finite-length simulation to analyze the performance and the convergence properties of these algorithms over (memoryless) binary symmetric channels. To apply DE, we generalize degree distributions to have the irregularity of both the code and the decoding algorithm embedded in them. A tight upper bound on the threshold of MB HscrTIalgorithms is derived, and it is proven that the asymptotic error probability for these algorithms tends to zero, at least exponentially, with the number of iterations. We devise optimal MB HscrTIalgorithms for irregular LDPC codes, and show that these algorithms outperform Gallager's algorithm A applied to optimized irregular LDPC codes. We also show that compared to switch-type algorithms, such as Gallager's algorithm B, where a comparable improvement is obtained by switching between different MB algorithms, MB HscrTIalgorithms are more robust and can better cope with unknown channel conditions, and thus can be practically more attractive.
To design low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with asymmetric channels and analyze their performance, an achievable asymmetric discrete density evolution method is proposed, which is based on offset min-sum decoding. First, the iterative formula of low-complexity asymmetric channel discrete density evolution is derived by means of combinatorics, difference method and the binomial theorem. The iterative formula is applied to further optimize the design of the LDPC codes using the offset min-sum decoding, and the optimal degree distributions and performance of the LDPC codes under different quantization ranges and step sizes are obtained under the asymmetric channel. Finally, the optimal offset values under high-precision quantization are obtained. The results show that under the asymmetric channel, the complexity of the proposed asymmetric density evolution method based on the offset min-sum decoding is reduced by an order of magnitude than that using the original method. For a fixed code rate, the smaller the variable node degree of the regular codes, the better the performance and the smaller the optimal offset value. For irregular LDPC codes, the optimal degree distributions and offset values are determined according to the differential evolution algorithm. For a fixed code rate, the larger the maximum variable node degree, the better the performance of irregular codes.
Density evolution is an algorithm for computing the capacity of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes under message-passing decoding. For memoryless binary-input continuous-output additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels and sum-product decoders, we use a Gaussian approximation for message densities under density evolution to simplify the analysis of the decoding algorithm. We convert the infinite-dimensional problem of iteratively calculating message densities, which is needed to find the exact threshold, to a one-dimensional problem of updating the means of the Gaussian densities. This simplification not only allows us to calculate the threshold quickly and to understand the behavior of the decoder better, but also makes it easier to design good irregular LDPC codes for AWGN channels. For various regular LDPC codes we have examined, thresholds can be estimated within 0.1 dB of the exact value. For rates between 0.5 and 0.9, codes designed using the Gaussian approximation perform within 0.02 dB of the best performing codes found so far by using density evolution when the maximum variable degree is 10. We show that by using the Gaussian approximation, we can visualize the sum-product decoding algorithm. We also show that the optimization of degree distributions can be understood and done graphically using the visualization.
The optimal performance-complexity tradeoff for error-correcting codes at rates strictly below the Shannon limit is a central question in coding theory. This paper proposes a numerical approach for the minimization of decoding complexity for long-block-length irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. The proposed design methodology is applicable to any binary-input memoryless symmetric channel and any iterative message-passing decoding algorithm with a parallel-update schedule. A key feature of the proposed optimization method is a new complexity measure that incorporates both the number of operations required to carry out a single decoding iteration and the number of iterations required for convergence. This paper shows that the proposed complexity measure can be accurately estimated from a density-evolution and extrinsic-information transfer chart analysis of the code. A sufficient condition is presented for convexity of the complexity measure in the variable edge-degree distribution; when it is not satisfied, numerical experiments nevertheless suggest that the local minimum is unique. The results presented herein show that when the decoding complexity is constrained, the complexity-optimized codes significantly outperform threshold-optimized codes at long block lengths, within the ensemble of irregular codes.
Noise threshold of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes ensemble could be calculated by density evolution of the decoding messages. According to the threshold, performance of the decoding algorithm could be evaluated and degree distribution pairs of irregular LDPC codes also might be optimized. In this paper, for regular LDPC codes on Rice channel, Discrete Density Evolution(DDE) for BP,BP-based and offset BP-based decoding algorithm were compared on different quantization level and step. Furthermore, degree distribution pairs of the irregular LDPC codes were optimized on Rice channel, which was based on DDE for offset BP-based decoding algorithm, the corresponding threshold is also calculated. Finally, the Probability Mass Function (PMF) evolution curve of optimized irregular LDPC codes with code rate 1/2 on Rice channel is given.