It is shown that dominant trapping sets of regular LDPC codes, so called absorption sets, undergo a two-phased dynamic behavior in the iterative message-passing decoding algorithm. Using a linear dynamic model for the iteration behavior of these sets, it is shown that they undergo an initial geometric growth phase which stabilizes in a final bit-flipping behavior where the algorithm reaches a fixed point. This analysis is shown to lead to very accurate numerical calculations of the error floor bit error rates down to error rates that are inaccessible by simulation. The topology of the dominant absorption sets of an example code, the IEEE 802.3an (2048,1723) regular LDPC code, are identified and tabulated using topological relationships in combination with search algorithms.
In this paper, we investigate the error floors of non-binary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes transmitted over the memoryless binary-input output-symmetric (MBIOS) channels. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for successful decoding of zigzag cycle codes over the MBIOS channel by the belief propagation decoder. We consider an expurgated ensemble of non-binary LDPC codes by using the above necessary and sufficient condition, and hence exhibit lower error floors. Finally, we show lower bounds of the error floors for the expurgated LDPC code ensembles over the MBIOS channel.
In the given paper we present a novel approach for constructing a QC-LDPC code of smaller length by lifting a given QC-LDPC code. The proposed method can be considered as a generalization of floor lifting. Also we prove several probabilistic statements concerning a theoretical improvement of the method with respect to the number of small cycles. Making some offline calculation of scale parameter it is possible to construct a sequence of QC-LDPC codes with different circulant sizes generated from a single exponent matrix using only floor and scale operations. The only parameter we store in memo…
The error floor of LDPC is revisited as an effect of dynamic message behavior in the so-called absorption sets of the code. It is shown that if the signal growth in the absorption sets is properly balanced by the growth of set-external messages, the error floor can be lowered to essentially arbitrarily low levels. Importance sampling techniques are discussed and used to verify the analysis, as well as to discuss the impact of iterations and message quantization on the code performance in the ultra-low BER (error floor) regime.
The error floor phenomenon observed with LDPC codes and their graph-based, iterative, message-passing (MP) decoders is commonly attributed to the existence of error-prone substructures -- variously referred to as near codewords, trapping sets, absorbing sets, or pseudocodewords -- in a Tanner graph representation of the code. Many approaches have been proposed to lower the error floor by designing new LDPC codes with fewer such substructures or by modifying the decoding algorithm. Using a theoretical analysis of iterative MP decoding in an idealized trapping set scenario, we show that a contri…
Some low-complexity LDPC decoders suffer from error floors. We apply iteration-dependent weights to the degree-3 variable nodes to solve this problem. When the 802.3ca EPON LDPC code is considered, an error floor decrease of more than 3 orders of magnitude is achieved.
In this paper, we analyze the error floor of column layered decoders, also known as shuffled decoders, for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes under saturating sum-product algorithm (SPA). To estimate the error floor, we evaluate the failure rate of different trapping sets (TSs) that contribute to the frame error rate in the error floor region. For each such TS, we model the dynamics of SPA in the vicinity of the TS by a linear state-space model that incorporates the information of the layered message-passing schedule. Consequently, the model parameters and the failure rate of the TS change …
This short paper explores density evolution (DE) for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes at signal-to-noise-ratios (SNRs) that are significantly above the decoding threshold. The focus is on the additive white Gaussian noise channel and LDPC codes in which the variable nodes have regular degree. Prior work, using DE, produced results in the error floor region which were asymptotic in the belief-propagation decoder's log-likelihood ratio (LLR) values. We develop expressions which closely approximate the LLR growth behavior at moderate LLR magnitudes. We then produce bounds on the mean extrins…
This paper addresses the prediction of error floors of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with variable nodes of constant degree in the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Specifically, we focus on the performance of the sum-product algorithm (SPA) decoder formulated in the log-likelihood ratio (LLR) domain. We hypothesize that several published error floor levels are due to the manner in which decoder implementations handled the LLRs at high SNRs. We employ an LLR-domain SPA decoder that does not saturate near-certain messages and find the error rates of our decoder to be lower b…
Cyclic liftings are proposed to lower the error floor of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. The liftings are designed to eliminate dominant trapping sets of the base code by removing the short cycles which form the trapping sets. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the cyclic permutations assigned to the edges of a cycle $c$ of length $\ell(c)$ in the base graph such that the inverse image of $c$ in the lifted graph consists of only cycles of length strictly larger than $\ell(c)$. The proposed method is universal in the sense that it can be applied to any LDPC code over any …
In this paper, we analyze the error floor of quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes decoded by the sum-product algorithm (SPA) with row layered message-passing scheduling. For this, we develop a linear state-space model of trapping sets (TSs) which incorporates the layered nature of scheduling. We demonstrate that the contribution of each TS to the error floor is not only a function of the topology of the TS, but also depends on the row layers in which different check nodes of the TS are located. This information, referred to as TS layer profile (TSLP), plays an important role…
We describe a family of instanton-based optimization methods developed recently for the analysis of the error floors of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. Instantons are the most probable configurations of the channel noise which result in decoding failures. We show that the general idea and the respective optimization technique are applicable broadly to a variety of channels, discrete or continuous, and variety of sub-optimal decoders. Specifically, we consider: iterative belief propagation (BP) decoders, Gallager type decoders, and linear programming (LP) decoders performing over the add…
Numerical issues related to the occurrence of error floors in floating-point simulations of belief propagation (BP) decoders are examined. Careful processing of messages corresponding to highly-certain bit values can sometimes reduce error floors by several orders of magnitude. Computational solutions for properly handling such messages are provided for the sum-product algorithm (SPA) and several variants.
We modified Cole's Importance Sampling (IS) method for enumerating of Trapping Sets (TS, asymmetric subgraphs) causing an error under message-passing decoder. Proposed Cole's IS modifications based on combination of several ideas: parallel TS impulse tree decomposition using unwrapping of message passing iterations, according short cycles dense and straightforward idea of Tanner Graph/ Forney's Normal Graph symmetry - Graph Authomorphism. Its allowed superior Velasquez-Subramani and Karimi-Banihashemi TS enumerating methods. Particularly proposed method under PEG (1008, 504) Mackay code for si…
This paper produces a rate-compatible protograph LDPC code at 1k information blocklength with superior performance in both waterfall and error floor regions. The design of such codes has proved difficult in the past because the constraints imposed by structured design (protographs), rate-compatibility, as well as small block length, are not easily satisfied together. For example, as the block length decreases, the predominance of decoding threshold as the main parameter in coding design is reduced, thus complicating the search for good codes. Our rate-compatible protograph codes have rates ran…
We propose a new low-density parity-check code construction scheme based on 2-lifts. The proposed codes have an advantage of admitting efficient hardware implementations. With the motivation of designing codes with low error floors, we present an analysis of the low-weight stopping set distributions of the proposed codes. Based on this analysis, we propose design criteria for designing codes with low error floors. Numerical results show that the resulting codes have low error probabilities over binary erasure channels.
We propose a systematic design of protograph-based quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with low error floor. We first characterize the trapping sets of such codes and demonstrate that the QC structure of the code eliminates some of the trapping set structures that can exist in a code with the same degree distribution and girth but lacking the QC structure. Using this characterization, our design aims at eliminating a targeted collection of trapping sets. Considering the parent/child relationship between the trapping sets in the collection, we search for and eliminate those …
This paper presents an efficient algorithm for finding the dominant trapping sets of a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code. The algorithm can be used to estimate the error floor of LDPC codes or to be part of the apparatus to design LDPC codes with low error floors. For regular codes, the algorithm is initiated with a set of short cycles as the input. For irregular codes, in addition to short cycles, variable nodes with low degree and cycles with low approximate cycle extrinsic message degree (ACE) are also used as the initial inputs. The initial inputs are then expanded recursively to domina…
The error floor phenomenon, associated with iterative decoders, is one of the most significant limitations to the applications of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. A variety of techniques from code design to decoder implementation have been proposed to address the error floor problem, among which post-processors have shown to be both effective and implementation-friendly. In this work, we take the inspiration from simulated annealing to generalize the post-processor design using three methods: quenching, extended heating, and focused heating, each of which targets a different error struct…
Product LDPC codes take advantage of LDPC decoding algorithms and the high minimum distance of product codes. We propose to add suitable interleavers to improve the waterfall performance of LDPC decoding. Interleaving also reduces the number of low weight codewords, that gives a further advantage in the error floor region.
Assuming iterative decoding for binary erasure channels (BECs), a novel tree-based technique for upper bounding the bit error rates (BERs) of arbitrary, finite low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes is provided and the resulting bound can be evaluated for all operating erasure probabilities, including both the waterfall and the error floor regions. This upper bound can also be viewed as a narrowing search of stopping sets, which is an approach different from the stopping set enumeration used for lower bounding the error floor. When combined with optimal leaf-finding modules, this upper bound is…
We analyze the performance of Low-Density-Parity-Check codes in the error-floor domain where the Signal-to-Noise-Ratio, s, is large, s >> 1. We describe how the instanton method of theoretical physics, recently adapted to coding theory, solves the problem of characterizing the error-floor domain in the Laplacian channel. An example of the (155,64,20) LDPC code with four iterations (each iteration consisting of two semi-steps: from bits-to-checks and from checks-to-bits) of the min-sum decoding is discussed. A generalized computational tree analysis is devised to explain the rational structure …
In this paper we construct low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes from transversal designs with low error-floors over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The constructed codes are based on transversal designs that arise from sets of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (MOLS) with cyclic structure. For lowering the error-floors, our approach is twofold: First, we give an exhaustive classification of so-called absorbing sets that may occur in the factor graphs of the given codes. These purely combinatorial substructures are known to be the main cause of decoding errors in the error-fl…
In this paper, we study the graphical structure of elementary trapping sets (ETS) of variable-regular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. ETSs are known to be the main cause of error floor in LDPC coding schemes. For the set of LDPC codes with a given variable node degree $d_l$ and girth $g$, we identify all the non-isomorphic structures of an arbitrary class of $(a,b)$ ETSs, where $a$ is the number of variable nodes and $b$ is the number of odd-degree check nodes in the induced subgraph of the ETS. Our study leads to a simple characterization of dominant classes of ETSs (those with relativ…
We prove that approximating the size of stopping and trapping sets in Tanner graphs of linear block codes, and more restrictively, the class of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, is NP-hard. The ramifications of our findings are that methods used for estimating the height of the error-floor of moderate- and long-length LDPC codes based on stopping and trapping set enumeration cannot provide accurate worst-case performance predictions.
Code annealing, a new method of designing good codes of short block length, is proposed, which is then concatenated with cyclic lifting to create finite codes of low frame error rate (FER) error floors without performance outliers. The stopping set analysis is performed on the cyclically lifted code ensemble assuming uniformly random lifting sequences, and the suppressing effect/weight of the cyclic lifting is identified for the first time, based on which the ensemble FER error floor can be analytically determined and a scaling law is derived. Both the first-order and high-order suppressing ef…
This paper is concerned with the construction of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with low error floors. Two main contributions are made. First, a new class of structured LDPC codes is introduced. The parity check matrices of these codes are arrays of permutation matrices which are obtained from Latin squares and form a finite field under some matrix operations. Second, a method to construct LDPC codes with low error floors on the binary symmetric channel (BSC) is presented. Codes are constructed so that their Tanner graphs are free of certain small trapping sets. These trapping sets are …
For LDPC codes operating over additive white Gaussian noise channels and decoded using message-passing decoders with limited precision, absorbing sets have been shown to be a key factor in error floor behavior. Focusing on this scenario, this paper introduces the cycle consistency matrix (CCM) as a powerful analytical tool for characterizing and avoiding absorbing sets in separable circulant-based (SCB) LDPC codes. SCB codes include a wide variety of regular LDPC codes such as array-based LDPC codes as well as many common quasi-cyclic codes. As a consequence of its cycle structure, each potent…
We face the following dilemma for designing low-density parity-check codes (LDPC) for quantum error correction. 1) The row weights of parity-check should be large: The minimum distances are bounded above by the minimum row weights of parity-check matrices of constituent classical codes. Small minimum distance tends to result in poor decoding performance at the error-floor region. 2) The row weights of parity-check matrices should not be large: The sum-product decoding performance at the water-fall region is degraded as the row weight increases. Recently, Kudekar et al. showed spatially-coupled…
An algorithm for constructing Tanner graphs of non-binary irregular quasi-cyclic LDPC codes is introduced. It employs a new method for selection of edge labels allowing control over the code's non-binary ACE spectrum and resulting in low error-floor. The efficiency of the algorithm is demonstrated by generating good codes of short to moderate length over small fields, outperforming codes generated by the known methods.
A spatially "Mt. Fuji" coupled low-density parity check (LDPC) ensemble is a modified version of the original spatially coupled (SC) LDPC ensemble. Its desirable properties are first observed in experimentally. The decoding error probability in the error floor region over the binary erasure channel (BEC) is theoretically analyzed later. In this paper, as the last piece of the theoretical analysis over the BEC, we analyze the decoding error probability in the waterfall region by modifying the covariance evolution which has been used to analyze the original SC-LDPC ensemble.
Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are capable of achieving excellent performance and provide a useful alternative for high performance applications. However, at medium to high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), an observable error floor arises from the loss of independence of messages passed under iterative graph-based decoding. In this paper, the error floor performance of short block length codes is improved by use of a novel candidate selection metric in code graph construction. The proposed Multipath EMD approach avoids harmful structures in the graph by evaluating certain properties of the…
In this paper we develop instanton method introduced in [1], [2], [3] to analyze quantitatively performance of Low-Density-Parity-Check (LDPC) codes decoded iteratively in the so-called error-floor regime. We discuss statistical properties of the numerical instanton-amoeba scheme focusing on detailed analysis and comparison of two regular LDPC codes: Tanner's (155, 64, 20) and Margulis' (672, 336, 16) codes. In the regime of moderate values of the signal-to-noise ratio we critically compare results of the instanton-amoeba evaluations against the standard Monte-Carlo calculations of the Frame-E…
We consider spatially coupled low-density parity-check codes with finite smoothing parameters. A finite smoothing parameter is important for designing practical codes that are decoded using low-complexity windowed decoders. By optimizing the amount of coupling between spatial positions, we show that we can construct codes with excellent thresholds and small rate loss, even with the lowest possible smoothing parameter and large variable node degrees, which are required for low error floors. We also establish that the decoding convergence speed is faster with non-uniformly coupled codes, which w…
Finite alphabet iterative decoders (FAID) with multilevel messages that can surpass BP in the error floor region for LDPC codes on the BSC were previously proposed. In this paper, we propose decimation-enhanced decoders. The technique of decimation which is incorporated into the message update rule, involves fixing certain bits of the code to a particular value. Under appropriately chosen rules, decimation can significantly reduce the number of iterations required to correct a fixed number of errors, while maintaining the good performance of the original decoder in the error floor region. At t…
The Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) decoding of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes has received many attentions due to its excellent performance at the error floor region. In this paper, we develop a parameter-free decoder based on Linear Program (LP) decoding by replacing the binary constraint with the intersection of a box and an $\ell_p$ sphere. An efficient $\ell_2$-box ADMM is designed to handle this model in a distributed fashion. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our decoder attains better adaptability to different Signal-to-Noise Ratio and channels.
In this letter, we propose a reliability-based windowed decoding scheme for spatially-coupled (SC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. To mitigate the error propagation along the sliding windowed decoder of the SC LDPC codes, a partial message reservation (PMR) method is proposed where only the reliable messages generated in the previous decoding window are reserved for the next decoding window. We also propose a partial syndrome check (PSC) stopping rule for each decoding window, in which only the complete VNs are checked. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme significantly impr…
Cooperative optimization is a new way for finding global optima of complicated functions of many variables. It has some important properties not possessed by any conventional optimization methods. It has been successfully applied in solving many large scale optimization problems in image processing, computer vision, and computational chemistry. This paper shows the application of this optimization principle in decoding LDPC codes, which is another hard combinatorial optimization problem. In our experiments, it significantly out-performed the sum-product algorithm, the best known method for dec…
The connections between variable nodes and check nodes have a great influence on the performance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. Inspired by the unique structure of polar code's generator matrix, we proposed a new method of constructing LDPC codes that achieves a polarization effect. The new code, named as polarized LDPC codes, is shown to achieve lower or no error floor in the binary symmetric channel (BSC)
Low density parity-check (LDPC) codes are a class of linear block codes that are decoded by running belief propagation (BP) algorithm or log-likelihood ratio belief propagation (LLR-BP) over the factor graph of the code. One of the disadvantages of LDPC codes is the onset of an error floor at high values of signal to noise ratio caused by trapping sets. In this paper, we propose a two stage decoder to deal with different types of trapping sets. Oscillating trapping sets are taken care by the first stage of the decoder and the elementary trapping sets are handled by the second stage of the deco…
A new construction is proposed for low density parity check (LDPC) codes using quadratic permutation polynomials over finite integer rings. The associated graphs for the new codes have both algebraic and pseudo-random nature, and the new codes are quasi-cyclic. Graph isomorphisms and automorphisms are identified and used in an efficient search for good codes. Graphs with girth as large as 12 were found. Upper bounds on the minimum Hamming distance are found both analytically and algorithmically. The bounds indicate that the minimum distance grows with block length. Near-codewords are one of th…
Spatially-Coupled LDPC (SC-LDPC) ensembles achieve the capacity of binary memoryless channels (BMS), asymptotically, under belief-propagation (BP) decoding. In this paper, we study the BP decoding of these code ensembles over a BMS channel and in the presence of a single random burst of erasures. We show that in the limit of code length, codewords can be recovered successfully if the length of the burst is smaller than some maximum recoverable burst length. We observe that the maximum recoverable burst length is practically the same if the transmission takes place over binary erasure channel o…
In this paper asymptotic methods are used to form lower bounds on the free distance to constraint length ratio of several ensembles of regular, asymptotically good, protograph-based LDPC convolutional codes. In particular, we show that the free distance to constraint length ratio of the regular LDPC convolutional codes exceeds that of the minimum distance to block length ratio of the corresponding LDPC block codes.
Leafless elementary trapping sets (LETSs) are known to be the problematic structures in the error floor region of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the additive white Gaussian (AWGN) channel under iterative decoding algorithms. While problems involving the general category of trapping sets, and the subcategory of elementary trapping sets (ETSs), have been shown to be NP-hard, similar results for LETSs, which are a subset of ETSs are not available. In this paper, we prove that, for a general LDPC code, finding a LETS of a given size a with minimum number of unsatisfied check nodes b is…
We consider the effect of LLR saturation on belief propagation decoding of low-density parity-check codes. Saturation occurs universally in practice and is known to have a significant effect on error floor performance. Our focus is on threshold analysis and stability of density evolution. We analyze the decoder for certain low-density parity-check code ensembles and show that belief propagation decoding generally degrades gracefully with saturation. Stability of density evolution is, on the other hand, rather strongly affected by saturation and the asymptotic qualitative effect of saturation i…
The "Divide and Concur'' (DC) algorithm, recently introduced by Gravel and Elser, can be considered a competitor to the belief propagation (BP) algorithm, in that both algorithms can be applied to a wide variety of constraint satisfaction, optimization, and probabilistic inference problems. We show that DC can be interpreted as a message-passing algorithm on a constraint graph, which helps make the comparison with BP more clear. The "difference-map'' dynamics of the DC algorithm enables it to avoid "traps'' which may be related to the "trapping sets'' or "pseudo-codewords'' that plague BP deco…
A solution is presented for the asymptotic growth rate of the AWGN-pseudoweight distribution of regular low-density parity-check (LDPC) code ensembles for a selected graph cover degree M >= 1. The evaluation of the growth rate requires solution of a system of 2M+1 nonlinear equations in 2M+1 unknowns. Simulation results for the pseudoweight distribution of two regular LDPC code ensembles are presented for graph covers of low degree.
Boosted Neural Decoders: Achieving Extreme Reliability of LDPC Codes for 6G Networks
University of Ulsan（蔚山大学）；Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd.（三星电子有限公司）；Pohang University of Science and Technology（浦项科技大学）；Yonsei University（延世大学）；Sungkyunkwan University（成均馆大学）；Seoul National University（首尔大学）
We discuss error floor asympotics and present a method for improving the performance of low-density parity check (LDPC) codes in the high SNR (error floor) region. The method is based on Tanner graph covers that do not have trapping sets from the original code. The advantages of the method are that it is universal, as it can be applied to any LDPC code/channel/decoding algorithm and it improves performance at the expense of increasing the code length, without losing the code regularity, without changing the decoding algorithm, and, under certain conditions, without lowering the code rate. The …
We estimate the variance of weight and stopping set distribution of regular LDPC ensembles. Using this estimate and the second moment method we obtain bounds on the probability that a randomly chosen code from regular LDPC ensemble has its weight distribution and stopping set distribution close to respective ensemble averages. We are able to show that a large fraction of total number of codes have their weight and stopping set distribution close to the average.
The error performance of the ensemble of typical LDPC codes transmitted over the binary erasure channel (BEC) is analyzed. In the past, lower bounds on the error exponents were derived. In this paper a probabilistic upper bound on this error exponent is derived. This bound holds with some confidence level.
This paper is concerned with construction and structural analysis of both cyclic and quasi-cyclic codes, particularly LDPC codes. It consists of three parts. The first part shows that a cyclic code given by a parity-check matrix in circulant form can be decomposed into descendant cyclic and quasi-cyclic codes of various lengths and rates. Some fundamental structural properties of these descendant codes are developed, including the characterizations of the roots of the generator polynomial of a cyclic descendant code. The second part of the paper shows that cyclic and quasi-cyclic descendant LD…
Protograph-based Raptor-like low-density parity-check codes (PBRL codes) are a recently proposed family of easily encodable and decodable rate-compatible LDPC (RC-LDPC) codes. These codes have an excellent iterative decoding threshold and performance across all design rates. PBRL codes designed thus far, for both long and short block-lengths, have been based on optimizing the iterative decoding threshold of the protograph of the RC code family at various design rates. In this work, we propose a design method to obtain better quasi-cyclic (QC) RC-LDPC codes with PBRL structure for short block-l…
Iterative decoders for finite length quantum low-density parity-check (QLDPC) codes are attractive because their hardware complexity scales only linearly with the number of physical qubits. However, they are impacted by short cycles, detrimental graphical configurations known as trapping sets (TSs) present in a code graph as well as symmetric degeneracy of errors. These factors significantly degrade the decoder decoding probability performance and cause so-called error floor. In this paper, we establish a systematic methodology by which one can identify and classify quantum trapping sets (QTSs…
Families of "asymptotically regular" LDPC block code ensembles can be formed by terminating (J,K)-regular protograph-based LDPC convolutional codes. By varying the termination length, we obtain a large selection of LDPC block code ensembles with varying code rates and substantially better iterative decoding thresholds than those of (J,K)-regular LDPC block code ensembles, despite the fact that the terminated ensembles are almost regular. Also, by means of an asymptotic weight enumerator analysis, we show that minimum distance grows linearly with block length for all of the ensembles in these f…
