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) according to their topological structure and decoder used. The conventional definition of a TS from classical error correction is generalized to address the syndrome decoding scenario for QLDPC codes. We show that the knowledge of QTSs can be used to design better QLDPC codes and decoders. Frame error rate improvements of two orders of magnitude in the error floor regime are demonstrated for some practical finite-length QLDPC codes without requiring any post-processing.
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.
Cages, defined as regular graphs with minimum number of nodes for a given girth, are well-studied in graph theory. Trapping sets are graphical structures responsible for error floor of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, and are well investigated in coding theory. In this paper, we make connections between cages and trapping sets. In particular, starting from a cage (or a modified cage), we construct a trapping set in multiple steps. Based on the connection between cages and trapping sets, we then use the available results in graph theory on cages and derive tight upper bounds on the size o…
Ensembles of (J,K)-regular low-density parity-check convolutional (LDPCC) codes are known to be asymptotically good, in the sense that the minimum free distance grows linearly with the constraint length. In this paper, we use a protograph-based analysis of terminated LDPCC codes to obtain an upper bound on the free distance growth rate of ensembles of periodically time-varying LDPCC codes. This bound is compared to a lower bound and evaluated numerically. It is found that, for a sufficiently large period, the bounds coincide. This approach is then extended to obtain bounds on the trapping set …
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 …
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…
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…
One of the phenomena that causes high decoding failure rates is trapping sets. Characterization of $(a,b)$ elementary trapping sets (ETSs), their graphical properties and the lower bounds on their size in variable regular LDPC codes with column weights 3, 4, 5 and 6, where $a$ is the size of the ETS and $b$ is the number of degree-one check nodes, have been an interesting subject among researchers. Although progressive-edge-growth method (PEG) to construct LDPC codes free of an specific ETS has been proposed in the literature, it is mostly applied to LDPC codes with column weight 3. In this pa…
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…
In this paper, we propose a characterization for non-elementary trapping sets (NETSs) of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. The characterization is based on viewing a NETS as a hierarchy of embedded graphs starting from an ETS. The characterization corresponds to an efficient search algorithm that under certain conditions is exhaustive. As an application of the proposed characterization/search, we obtain lower and upper bounds on the stopping distance $s_{min}$ of LDPC codes. We examine a large number of regular and irregular LDPC codes, and demonstrate the efficiency and versatility of ou…
The relation between the girth and the guaranteed error correction capability of $γ$-left regular LDPC codes when decoded using the bit flipping (serial and parallel) algorithms is investigated. A lower bound on the size of variable node sets which expand by a factor of at least $3 γ/4$ is found based on the Moore bound. An upper bound on the guaranteed error correction capability is established by studying the sizes of smallest possible trapping sets. The results are extended to generalized LDPC codes. It is shown that generalized LDPC codes can correct a linear fraction of errors under the p…
This paper introduces a class of structured lowdensity parity-check (LDPC) codes whose parity check matrices are arrays of permutation matrices. The permutation matrices are obtained from Latin squares and form a finite field under some matrix operations. They are chosen so that the Tanner graphs do not contain subgraphs harmful to iterative decoding algorithms. The construction of column-weight-three codes is presented. Although the codes are optimized for the Gallager A/B algorithm over the binary symmetric channel (BSC), their error performance is very good on the additive white Gaussian no…
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…
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 …
One of the phenomena that influences significantly the performance of low-density parity-check codes is known as trapping sets. An $(a,b)$ elementary trapping set, or simply an ETS where $a$ is the size and $b$ is the number of degree-one check nodes and $\frac{b}{a}<1$, causes high decoding failure rate and exert a strong influence on the error floor. In this paper, we provide sufficient conditions for exponent matrices to have fully connected $(3,n)$-regular QC-LDPC codes with girths 6 and 8 whose Tanner graphs are free of small ETSs. Applying sufficient conditions on the exponent matrix to …
The performance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes in the error floor region is closely related to some combinatorial structures of the code's Tanner graph, collectively referred to as {\it trapping sets (TSs)}. In this paper, we study the asymptotic average number of different types of trapping sets such as {\em elementary TSs (ETS)}, {\em leafless ETSs (LETS)}, {\em absorbing sets (ABS)}, {\em elementary ABSs (EABS)}, and {\em stopping sets (SS)}, in random variable-regular and irregular LDPC code ensembles. We demonstrate that, regardless of the type of the TS, as the code's length te…
In this paper we give lower bounds on the size of $(a,b)$ elementary trapping sets (ETSs) belonging to variable-regular LDPC codes with any girth, $g$, and irregular ones with girth 8, where $a$ is the size, $b$ is the number of degree-one check nodes and satisfy the inequality $\frac{b}{a}<1$. Our proposed lower bounds are analytical, rather than exhaustive search-based, and based on graph theories. The numerical results in the literarture for $g=6,8$ for variable-regular LDPC codes match our results. Some of our investigations are independent of the girth and rely on the variables $a$, $b$ a…
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…
LDPC codes are used in many applications, however, their error correcting capabilities are limited by the presence of stopping sets and trapping sets. Trapping sets and stopping sets occur when specific low-wiehgt error patterns cause a decoder to fail. Trapping sets were first discovered with investigation of the error floor of the Margulis code. Possible solutions are constructions which avoid creating trapping sets, such as progressive edge growth (PEG), or methods which remove trapping sets from existing constructions, such as graph covers. This survey examines trapping sets and stopping s…
Controlling small size trapping sets and short cycles can result in LDPC codes with large minimum distance $d_{\min}$. We prove that short cycles with a chord are the root of several trapping sets and eliminating these cycles increases $d_{\min}$. We show that the lower bounds on $d_{\min}$ of an LDPC code with chordless short cycles, girths 6 (and 8), and column weights $γ$ (and 3), respectively, are $2γ$ (and 10), which is a significant improvement compared to the existing bounds $γ+1$ (and 6). Necessary and sufficient conditions for exponent matrices of protograph-based LDPC codes with chor…
It has previously been shown that ensembles of terminated protograph-based low-density parity-check (LDPC) convolutional codes have a typical minimum distance that grows linearly with block length and that they are capable of achieving capacity approaching iterative decoding thresholds on the binary erasure channel (BEC). In this paper, we review a recent result that the dramatic threshold improvement obtained by terminating LDPC convolutional codes extends to the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. Also, using a (3,6)-regular protograph-based LDPC convolutional code ensemble as an e…
In this paper, we propose a characterization of elementary trapping sets (ETSs) for irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. These sets are known to be the main culprits in the error floor region of such codes. The characterization of ETSs for irregular codes has been known to be a challenging problem due to the large variety of non-isomorphic ETS structures that can exist within the Tanner graph of these codes. This is a direct consequence of the variety of the degrees of the variable nodes that can participate in such structures. The proposed characterization is based on a hierarchic…
In this paper, we propose a new approach to construct a class of check-hybrid generalized low-density parity-check (CH-GLDPC) codes which are free of small trapping sets. The approach is based on converting some selected check nodes involving a trapping set into super checks corresponding to a 2-error correcting component code. Specifically, we follow two main purposes to construct the check-hybrid codes; first, based on the knowledge of the trapping sets of the global LDPC code, single parity checks are replaced by super checks to disable the trapping sets. We show that by converting specifie…
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 …
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…
In this paper, we propose a new characterization for elementary trapping sets (ETSs) of variable-regular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. Recently, Karimi and Banihashemi proposed a characterization of ETSs, which was based on viewing an ETS as a layered superset (LSS) of a short cycle in the code's Tanner graph. A notable advantage of LSS characterization is that it corresponds to a simple LSS-based search algorithm that starts from short cycles of the graph and finds the ETSs with LSS structure efficiently. Compared to the LSS-based characterization of Karimi and Banihashemi, which is …
We investigate the relation between the girth and the guaranteed error correction capability of $γ$-left regular LDPC codes when decoded using the bit flipping (serial and parallel) algorithms. A lower bound on the number of variable nodes which expand by a factor of at least $3 γ/4$ is found based on the Moore bound. An upper bound on the guaranteed correction capability is established by studying the sizes of smallest possible trapping sets.
The use of partial geometries to construct parity-check matrices for LDPC codes has resulted in the design of successful codes with a probability of error close to the Shannon capacity at bit error rates down to $10^{-15}$. Such considerations have motivated this further investigation. A new and simple construction of a type of partial geometries with quasi-cyclic structure is given and their properties are investigated. The trapping sets of the partial geometry codes were considered previously using the geometric aspects of the underlying structure to derive information on the size of allowab…
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 …
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…
The error correction performance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes under iterative message-passing decoding is degraded by the presence of certain harmful objects existing in their Tanner graph representation. Depending on the context, such harmful objects are known as stopping sets, trapping sets, absorbing sets, or pseudocodewords. In this paper, we propose a general procedure based on edge spreading that enables the design of quasi-cyclic (QC) spatially coupled low-density parity-check codes (SC-LDPCCs) that are derived from QC-LDPC block codes and possess a significantly reduced mul…
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…
It is proved in this work that exhaustively determining bad patterns in arbitrary, finite low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, including stopping sets for binary erasure channels (BECs) and trapping sets (also known as near-codewords) for general memoryless symmetric channels, is an NP-complete problem, and efficient algorithms are provided for codes of practical short lengths n~=500. By exploiting the sparse connectivity of LDPC codes, the stopping sets of size <=13 and the trapping sets of size <=11 can be efficiently exhaustively determined for the first time, and the resulting exhaustive…
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…
Spatially coupled low-density parity-check (SC-LDPC) codes are sparse graph codes that have recently become of interest due to their capacity-approaching performance on memoryless binary input channels. In this paper, we unify all existing SC-LDPC code construction methods under a new generalized description of SC-LDPC codes based on algebraic lifts of graphs. We present an improved low-complexity counting method for the special case of $(3,3)$-absorbing sets for array-based SC-LDPC codes, which we then use to optimize permutation assignments in SC-LDPC code construction. We show that codes co…
We investigate the reasons behind the superior performance of belief propagation decoding of non-binary LDPC codes over their binary images when the transmission occurs over the binary erasure channel. We show that although decoding over the binary image has lower complexity, it has worse performance owing to its larger number of stopping sets relative to the original non-binary code. We propose a method to find redundant parity-checks of the binary image that eliminate these additional stopping sets, so that we achieve performance comparable to that of the original non-binary LDPC code with l…
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 performance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) is known to be limited by the presence of certain sub-graphs that exist in the Tanner graph representation of the code, for example trapping sets and absorbing sets. This paper derives a lower bound on the frame error rate (FER) of any LDPC code containing a given problematic sub-graph, assuming a particular message passing decoder and decoder quantization. A crucial aspect of the lower bound is that it is code-independent, in the sense that it can be derived based only on a problematic sub-graph and…
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 paper proposes a class of rate-compatible LDPC codes, called protograph-based Raptor-like (PBRL) codes. The construction is focused on binary codes for BI-AWGN channels. As with the Raptor codes, additional parity bits are produced by exclusive-OR operations on the precoded bits, providing extensive rate compatibility. Unlike Raptor codes, the structure of each additional parity bit in the protograph is explicitly designed through density evolution. The construction method provides low iterative decoding thresholds and the lifted codes result in excellent error rate performance for long-b…
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…
Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes are usually decoded by running an iterative belief-propagation, or message-passing, algorithm over the factor graph of the code. The traditional message-passing schedule consists of updating all the variable nodes in the graph, using the same pre-update information, followed by updating all the check nodes of the graph, again, using the same pre-update information. Recently several studies show that sequential scheduling, in which messages are generated using the latest available information, significantly improves the convergence speed in terms of number …
This paper provides a construction of non-binary LDPC convolutional codes, which generalizes the work of Robinson and Bernstein. The sets of integers forming an $(n-1,w)$-difference triangle set are used as supports of the columns of rate $(n-1)/n$ convolutional codes. If the field size is large enough, the Tanner graph associated to the sliding parity-check matrix of the code is free from $4$ and $6$-cycles not satisfying the full rank condition. This is important for improving the performance of a code and avoiding the presence of low-weight codewords and absorbing sets. The parameters of th…
LDPC codes constructed from permutation matrices have recently attracted the interest of many researchers. A crucial point when dealing with such codes is trying to avoid cycles of short length in the associated Tanner graph, i.e. obtaining a possibly large girth. In this paper, we provide a framework to obtain constructions of such codes. We relate criteria for the existence of cycles of a certain length with some number-theoretic concepts, in particular with the so-called Sidon sets. In this way we obtain examples of LDPC codes with a certain girth. Finally, we extend our constructions to al…
Generalized low-density parity-check (GLDPC) codes are a class of LDPC codes in which the standard single parity check (SPC) constraints are replaced by constraints defined by a linear block code. These stronger constraints typically result in improved error floor performance, due to better minimum distance and trapping set properties, at a cost of some increased decoding complexity. In this paper, we study spatially coupled generalized low-density parity-check (SC-GLDPC) codes and present a comprehensive analysis of these codes, including: (1) an iterative decoding threshold analysis of SC-GL…
Multiple reads of the same Flash memory cell with distinct word-line voltages provide enhanced precision for LDPC decoding. In this paper, the word-line voltages are optimized by maximizing the mutual information (MI) of the quantized channel. The enhanced precision from a few additional reads allows FER performance to approach that of full-precision soft information and enables an LDPC code to significantly outperform a BCH code. A constant-ratio constraint provides a significant simplification in the optimization with no noticeable loss in performance. For a well-designed LDPC code, the quan…
In this paper, we propose to study and optimize a very general class of LDPC codes whose variable nodes belong to finite sets with different orders. We named this class of codes Hybrid LDPC codes. Although efficient optimization techniques exist for binary LDPC codes and more recently for non-binary LDPC codes, they both exhibit drawbacks due to different reasons. Our goal is to capitalize on the advantages of both families by building codes with binary (or small finite set order) and non-binary parts in their factor graph representation. The class of Hybrid LDPC codes is obviously larger than…
Recently, we introduced a new class of finite alphabet iterative decoders (FAIDs) for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. These decoders are capable of surpassing belief propagation in the error floor region on the Binary Symmetric channel with much lower complexity. In this paper, we introduce a a novel scheme to further increase the guaranteed error correction capability from what is achievable by a FAID on column-weight-three LDPC codes. The proposed scheme uses a plurality of FAIDs which collectively correct more error patterns than a single FAID on a given code. The collection of FAIDs…
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…
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…
In this paper, a construction of $(n,k,δ)$ LDPC convolutional codes over arbitrary finite fields, which generalizes the work of Robinson and Bernstein and the later work of Tong is provided. The sets of integers forming a $(k,w)$-(weak) difference triangle set are used as supports of some columns of the sliding parity-check matrix of an $(n,k,δ)$ convolutional code, where $n\in\mathbb{N}$, $n>k$. The parameters of the convolutional code are related to the parameters of the underlying difference triangle set. In particular, a relation between the free distance of the code and $w$ is established…
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…
