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 also obtain irregular LDPC codes.
In this paper, we study the cycle distribution of random low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, randomly constructed protograph-based LDPC codes, and random quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes. We prove that for a random bipartite graph, with a given (irregular) degree distribution, the distributions of cycles of different length tend to independent Poisson distributions, as the size of the graph tends to infinity. We derive asymptotic upper and lower bounds on the expected values of the Poisson distributions that are independent of the size of the graph, and only depend on the degree distribution an…
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…
The main goal of coding theory is to devise efficient systems to exploit the full capacity of a communication channel, thus achieving an arbitrarily small error probability. Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes are a family of block codes--characterised by admitting a sparse parity check matrix--with good correction capabilities. In the present paper the orbits of subspaces of a finite projective space under the action of a Singer cycle are investigated.
There have been lots of efforts on the construction of quasi-cyclic (QC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with large girth. However, most of them are focused on protographs with single edges and little research has been done for the construction of QC LDPC codes lifted from protographs with multiple edges. Compared to single-edge protographs, multiple-edge protographs have benefits such that QC LDPC codes lifted from them can potentially have larger minimum Hamming distance. In this paper, all subgraph patterns of multiple-edge protographs, which prevent QC LDPC codes from having large gi…
To obtain a better cycle-structure is still a challenge for the low-density parity-check (LDPC) code design. This paper formulates two metrics firstly so that the progressive edge-growth (PEG) algorithm and the approximate cycle extrinsic message degree (ACE) constrained PEG algorithm are unified into one integrated algorithm, called the metric-constrained PEG algorithm (M-PEGA). Then, as an improvement for the M-PEGA, the multi-edge metric-constrained PEG algorithm (MM-PEGA) is proposed based on two new concepts, the multi-edge local girth and the edge-trials. The MM-PEGA with the edge-trials…
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…
An algorithm for constructing parity-check matrices of non-binary quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (NB QC-LDPC) codes is proposed. The algorithm finds short cycles in the base matrix and tries to eliminate them by selecting the circulants and the elements of GF(q). Firstly the algorithm tries to eliminate the cycles with the smallest number edges going outside the cycle. The efficiency of the algorithm is demonstrated by means of simulations. In particular, it was shown that NB QC-LDPC codes constructed with use of our algorithm loose less that 0.1 dB in comparison to the best NB LDPC cod…
An algebraic group ring method for constructing codes with no short cycles in the check matrix is derived. It is shown that the matrix of a group ring element has no short cycles if and only if the collection of group differences of this element has no repeats. When applied to elements in the group ring with small support this gives a general method for constructing and analysing low density parity check (LDPC) codes with no short cycles from group rings. Examples of LDPC codes with no short cycles are constructed from group ring elements and these are simulated and compared with known LDPC co…
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…
In this paper, the concept of the {\it broken diagonal pair} in the chess-like square board is used to define some well-structured block designs whose incidence matrices can be considered as the parity-check matrices of some high rate cycle codes with girth 12. The structure of the proposed parity-check matrices significantly reduces the complexity of encoding and decoding. Interestingly, the constructed regular cycle codes with row-weights $t$, $3\leq t \leq 20$, $t\neq 7, 15, 16$, have the best lengths among the known regular girth-12 cycle codes. In addition, the proposed cycle codes can be…
In a digital communication system, information is sent from one place to another over a noisy communication channel using binary symbols (bits). Original information is encoded by adding redundant bits, which are then used by low--density parity--check (LDPC) codes to detect and correct errors that may have been introduced during transmission. Error correction capability of an LDPC code is severely degraded due to harmful structures such as small cycles in its bipartite graph representation known as Tanner graph (TG). We introduce an integer programming formulation to generate a TG for a given…
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…
We prove that the Bethe expression for the conditional input-output entropy of cycle LDPC codes on binary symmetric channels above the MAP threshold is exact in the large block length limit. The analysis relies on methods from statistical physics. The finite size corrections to the Bethe expression are expressed through a polymer expansion which is controlled thanks to expander and counting arguments.
We present a general approach to designing capacity-approaching high-girth low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that are friendly to hardware implementation. Our methodology starts by defining a new class of "hierarchical" quasi-cyclic (HQC) LDPC codes that generalizes the structure of quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes. Whereas the parity check matrices of QC LDPC codes are composed of circulant sub-matrices, those of HQC LDPC codes are composed of a hierarchy of circulant sub-matrices that are in turn constructed from circulant sub-matrices, and so on, through some number of levels. We show how t…
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…
In this paper, we investigate novel strategies for generating rate-compatible (RC) irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with short/moderate block lengths. We propose three puncturing and two extension schemes, which are designed to determine the puncturing positions that minimize the performance degradation and the extension that maximize the performance. The first puncturing scheme employs a counting cycle algorithm and a grouping strategy for variable nodes having short cycles of equal length in the Tanner Graph (TG). The second scheme relies on a metric called Extrinsic Message D…
Low-density parity check (LDPC) codes are a significant class of classical codes with many applications. Several good LDPC codes have been constructed using random, algebraic, and finite geometries approaches, with containing cycles of length at least six in their Tanner graphs. However, it is impossible to design a self-orthogonal parity check matrix of an LDPC code without introducing cycles of length four. In this paper, a new class of quantum LDPC codes based on lines and points of finite geometries is constructed. The parity check matrices of these codes are adapted to be self-orthogonal …
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 …
In this paper, we define two matrices named as "difference matrices", denoted by $D$ and $DD$ which significantly contribute to achieve regular single-edge QC-LDPC codes with the shortest length and the certain girth as well as regular and irregular multiple-edge QC-LDPC codes. Making use of these matrices, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions to have single-edge $(m,n)$-regular QC-LDPC codes with girth 6, 10 and 12. Additionally, for girth 6, we achieve all non-isomorphic codes with the minimum lifting degree, $N$, for $m=4$ and $5\leq n\leq 11$, and present an exponent matrix for ea…
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 …
Low-density parity check (LDPC) codes are an important class of codes with many applications. Two algebraic methods for constructing regular LDPC codes are derived -- one based on nonprimitive narrow-sense BCH codes and the other directly based on cyclotomic cosets. The constructed codes have high rates and are free of cycles of length four; consequently, they can be decoded using standard iterative decoding algorithms. The exact dimension and bounds for the minimum distance and stopping distance are derived. These constructed codes can be used to derive quantum error-correcting codes.
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…
A simple and general definition of quasi cyclic low density parity check (QC LDPC) codes which are constructed based on circulant permutation matrices (CPM) is proposed. As an special case of this definition, we first represent one type of so called combinatorially designed multiple edge protograph codes. The code construction is mainly based on perfect difference families (PDF) and is called Construction 1. Secondly, using the proposed Construction 1 along with a technique named as column dispersion technique (CDT), we design several types of multiple-edge CPM QC LDPC codes (codes with Constr…
Spatially-Coupled (SC)-LDPC codes are known to have outstanding error-correction performance and low decoding latency. Whereas previous works on LDPC and SC-LDPC codes mostly take either an asymptotic or a finite-length design approach, in this paper we present a unified framework for jointly optimizing the codes' thresholds and cycle counts to address both regimes. The framework is based on efficient traversal and pruning of the code search space, building on the fact that the performance of a protograph-based SC-LDPC code depends on some characteristics of the code's partitioning matrix, whi…
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 this paper a new message passing algorithm, which takes advantage of both tree-based re-parameterization and the knowledge of short cycles, is introduced for the purpose of decoding LDPC codes with short block lengths. The proposed algorithm is called variable factor appearance probability belief propagation (VFAP-BP) algorithm and is suitable for wireless communications applications, where both good decoding performance and low-latency are expected. Our simulation results show that the VFAP-BP algorithm outperforms the standard BP algorithm and requires a significantly smaller number of it…
In this paper, we deal with time-invariant spatially coupled low-density parity-check convolutional codes (SC-LDPC-CCs). Classic design approaches usually start from quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDPC) block codes and exploit suitable unwrapping procedures to obtain SC-LDPC-CCs. We show that the direct design of the SC-LDPC-CCs syndrome former matrix or, equivalently, the symbolic parity-check matrix, leads to codes with smaller syndrome former constraint lengths with respect to the best solutions available in the literature. We provide theoretical lower bounds on the syndrome form…
Density evolution for protograph Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes is considered, and it is shown that the message-error rate falls double-exponentially with iterations whenever the degree-2 subgraph of the protograph is cycle-free and noise level is below threshold. Conditions for stability of protograph density evolution are established and related to the structure of the protograph. Using large-girth graphs, sequences of protograph LDPC codes with block-error threshold equal to bit-error threshold and block-error rate falling near-exponentially with blocklength are constructed determini…
In this paper, we investigate the error correction capability of column-weight-three LDPC codes when decoded using the Gallager A algorithm. We prove that the necessary condition for a code to correct $k \geq 5$ errors is to avoid cycles of length up to $2k$ in its Tanner graph. As a consequence of this result, we show that given any $α>0, \exists N $ such that $\forall n>N$, no code in the ensemble of column-weight-three codes can correct all $αn$ or fewer errors. We extend these results to the bit flipping algorithm.
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 …
A non-binary (2,v)-regular LDPC code is defined by a parity-check matrix with column weight 2 and row weight v. In this report, we give an ontology-based approach to the optimization for this class of codes. All possible inter-connected cycle patterns that lead to low symbol-weight codewords are identified to put together the ontology. The optimization goal is to improve the distance property of equivalent binary images. Using the proposed method, the estimation and optimization of bit-distance spectrum becomes easily handleable. Three codes in the CCSDS recommendation are analyzed and several…
In this letter, we present a hybrid iterative decoder for non-binary low density parity check (LDPC) codes over binary erasure channel (BEC), based on which the recursion of the erasure probability is derived to design non-binary LDPC codes with convergence-optimized degree distributions. The resulting one-step decoding tree is cycle-free and achieves lower decoding complexity. Experimental studies show that the proposed convergence-optimization algorithm accelerates the convergence process by 33%.
This paper presents a theoretical study of a new type of LDPC codes motivated by practical storage applications. LDPCL codes (suffix L represents locality) are LDPC codes that can be decoded either as usual over the full code block, or locally when a smaller sub-block is accessed (to reduce latency). LDPCL codes are designed to maximize the error-correction performance vs. rate in the usual (global) mode, while at the same time providing a certain performance in the local mode. We develop a theoretical framework for the design of LDPCL codes. Our results include a design tool to construct an L…
For a high-rate case, it is difficult to randomly construct good low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes of short and moderate lengths because their Tanner graphs are prone to making short cycles. Also, the existing high-rate quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes can be constructed only for very restricted code parameters. In this paper, a new construction method of high-rate regular QC LDPC codes with parity-check matrices consisting of a single row of circulants with the column-weight 3 or 4 is proposed based on special classes of cyclic difference families. The proposed QC LDPC codes can be constructe…
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.
The paper presents bounds on the achievable rates and the decoding complexity of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. It is assumed that the communication of these codes takes place over statistically independent parallel channels where these channels are memoryless, binary-input and output-symmetric (MBIOS). The bounds are applied to punctured LDPC codes. A diagram concludes our discussion by showing interconnections between the theorems in this paper and some previously reported results.
We consider spatially-coupled protograph-based LDPC codes for the three terminal erasure relay channel. It is observed that BP threshold value, the maximal erasure probability of the channel for which decoding error probability converges to zero, of spatially-coupled codes, in particular spatially-coupled MacKay-Neal code, is close to the theoretical limit for the relay channel. Empirical results suggest that spatially-coupled protograph-based LDPC codes have great potential to achieve theoretical limit of a general relay channel.
This paper considers the problem of source coding with side information at the decoder, also called Slepian-Wolf source coding scheme. In practical applications of this coding scheme, the statistical relation between the source and the side information can vary from one data transmission to another, and there is a need to adapt the coding rate depending on the current statistical relation. In this paper, we propose a novel rate-adaptive code construction based on LDPC codes for the Slepian-Wolf source coding scheme. The proposed code design method allows to optimize the code degree distributio…
We propose an efficient encoding algorithm for the binary and non-binary low-density parity-check codes. This algorithm transforms the parity part of the parity-check matrix into a block triangular matrix with low weight diagonal submatrices by row and column permutations in the preprocessing stage. This algorithm determines the parity part of a codeword by block back-substitution to reduce the encoding complexity in the encoding stage. Numerical experiments show that this algorithm has a lower encoding complexity than existing encoding algorithms. Moreover, we show that this algorithm encodes…
This paper revisits the connection between the girth of a protograph-based LDPC code given by a parity-check matrix and the properties of powers of the product between the matrix and its transpose in order to obtain the necessary and sufficient conditions for a code to have given girth between 6 and 12, and to show how these conditions can be incorporated into simple algorithms to construct codes of that girth. To this end, we highlight the role that certain submatrices that appear in these products have in the construction of codes of desired girth. In particular, we show that imposing girth …
LDPC codes based on multiple-edge protographs potentially have larger minimum distances compared to their counterparts, single-edge protographs. However, considering different features of their Tanner graph, such as short cycles, girth and other graphical structures, is harder than for Tanner graphs from single-edge protographs. In this paper, we provide a novel approach to construct the parity-check matrix of an LDPC code which is based on trades obtained from block designs. We employ our method to construct two important categories of LDPC codes; quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC and spatially-coupled …
This paper is focused on the derivation of some universal properties of capacity-approaching low-density parity-check (LDPC) code ensembles whose transmission takes place over memoryless binary-input output-symmetric (MBIOS) channels. Properties of the degree distributions, graphical complexity and the number of fundamental cycles in the bipartite graphs are considered via the derivation of information-theoretic bounds. These bounds are expressed in terms of the target block/ bit error probability and the gap (in rate) to capacity. Most of the bounds are general for any decoding algorithm, and…
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…
