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A non-adaptive quantitative group testing (GT) scheme based on sparse codes-on-graphs in combination with low-complexity peeling decoding was introduced and analyzed by Karimi et al.. In this work, we propose a variant of this scheme based on low-density parity-check codes where the BCH codes at the constraint nodes are replaced by simple single parity-check codes. Furthermore, we apply spatial coupling to both GT schemes, perform a density evolution analysis, and compare their performance with and without coupling. Our analysis shows that both schemes improve with increasing coupling memory, and for all considered cases, it is observed that the LDPC code-based scheme substantially outperforms the original scheme. Simulation results for finite block length confirm the asymptotic density evolution thresholds.

We show that spatially coupled low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes yield robust performance over changing intersymbol interfere (ISI) channels with optimal and suboptimal detectors. We compare the performance with classical LDPC code design which involves optimizing the degree distribution for a given (known) channel. We demonstrate that these classical schemes, despite working very good when designed for a given channel, can perform poorly if the channel is exchanged. With spatially coupled LDPC codes, however, we get performances close to the symmetric information rates with just a single code, without the need to know the channel and adapt to it at the transmitter. We also investigate threshold saturation with the linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) detector and show that with spatial coupling its performance can get remarkably close to that of an optimal detector for regular LDPC codes.

In this paper, we derive the exact input/output transfer functions of the optimal a-posteriori probability channel detector for a general ISI channel with erasures. Considering three channel impulse responses of different memory as an example, we compute the BP and MAP thresholds for regular spatially coupled LDPC codes with joint iterative detection and decoding. When we compare the results with the thresholds of ISI channels with Gaussian noise we observe an apparent inconsistency, i.e., a channel which performs better with erasures performs worse with AWGN. We show that this anomaly can be resolved by looking at the thresholds from an entropy perspective. We finally show that with spatial coupling we can achieve the symmetric information rates of different ISI channels using the same code.

mmWave communication has come up as the unexplored spectrum for 5G services. With new standards for 5G NR positioning, more off-the-shelf platforms and algorithms are needed to perform indoor positioning. An object can be accurately positioned in a room either by using an angle and a delay estimate or two angle estimates or three delay estimates. We propose an algorithm to jointly estimate the angle of arrival (AoA) and angle of departure (AoD), based only on the received signal strength (RSS). We use mm-FLEX, an experimentation platform developed by IMDEA Networks Institute that can perform real-time signal processing for experimental validation of our proposed algorithm. Codebook-based beampatterns are used with a uniquely placed multi-antenna array setup to enhance the reception of multipath components and we obtain an AoA estimate per receiver thereby overcoming the line-of-sight (LoS) limitation of RSS-based localization systems. We further validate the results from measurements by emulating the setup with a simple ray-tracing approach., Comment: Accepted in IEEE WCNC 2024

CC-GLPDC codes are a class of generalized low-density parity-check (GLDPC) codes where the constraint nodes (CNs) represent convolutional codes. This allows for efficient decoding in the trellis with the forward-backward algorithm, and the strength of the component codes easily can be controlled by the encoder memory without changing the graph structure. In this letter, we extend the class of CC-GLDPC codes by introducing different types of irregularity at the CNs and investigating their effect on the BP and MAP decoding thresholds for the binary erasure channel (BEC). For the considered class of codes, an exhaustive grid search is performed to find the BP-optimized and MAP-optimized ensembles and compare their thresholds with the regular ensemble of the same design rate. The results show that irregularity can significantly improve the BP thresholds, whereas the thresholds of the MAP-optimized ensembles are only slightly different from the regular ensembles. Simulation results for the AWGN channel are presented as well and compared to the corresponding thresholds., Comment: Submitted to IEEE communication letters

The commercial availability of low-cost millimeter wave (mmWave) communication and radar devices is starting to improve the penetration of such technologies in consumer markets, paving the way for large-scale and dense deployments in fifth-generation (5G)-and-beyond as well as 6G networks. At the same time, pervasive mmWave access will enable device localization and device-free sensing with unprecedented accuracy, especially with respect to sub-6 GHz commercial-grade devices. This paper surveys the state of the art in device-based localization and device-free sensing using mmWave communication and radar devices, with a focus on indoor deployments. We first overview key concepts about mmWave signal propagation and system design. Then, we provide a detailed account of approaches and algorithms for localization and sensing enabled by mmWaves. We consider several dimensions in our analysis, including the main objectives, techniques, and performance of each work, whether each research reached some degree of implementation, and which hardware platforms were used for this purpose. We conclude by discussing that better algorithms for consumer-grade devices, data fusion methods for dense deployments, as well as an educated application of machine learning methods are promising, relevant and timely research directions., Comment: 43 pages, 13 figures. Accepted in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials (IEEE COMST)

Local pseudorandom generators are a class of fundamental cryptographic primitives having very broad applications in theoretical cryptography. Following Couteau et al.'s work in ASIACRYPT 2018, this paper further studies the concrete security of one important class of local pseudorandom generators, i.e., Goldreich's pseudorandom generators. Our first attack is of the guess-and-determine type. Our result significantly improves the state-of-the-art algorithm proposed by Couteau et al., in terms of both asymptotic and concrete complexity, and breaks all the challenge parameters they proposed. For instance, for a parameter set suggested for 128 bits of security, we could solve the instance faster by a factor of about $2^{61}$, thereby destroying the claimed security completely. Our second attack further exploits the extremely sparse structure of the predicate $P_5$ and combines ideas from iterative decoding. This novel attack, named guess-and-decode, substantially improves the guess-and-determine approaches for cryptographic-relevant parameters. All the challenge parameter sets proposed in Couteau et al.'s work in ASIACRYPT 2018 aiming for 80-bit (128-bit) security levels can be solved in about $2^{58}$ ($2^{78}$) operations. We suggest new parameters for achieving 80-bit (128-bit) security with respect to our attacks. We also extend the attack to other promising predicates and investigate their resistance., Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures

A product code with single parity-check component codes can be described via the tools of a multi-kernel polar code, where the rows of the generator matrix are chosen according to the constraints imposed by the product code construction. Following this observation, successive cancellation decoding of such codes is introduced. In particular, the error probability of single parity-check product codes over binary memoryless symmetric channels under successive cancellation decoding is characterized. A bridge with the analysis of product codes introduced by Elias is also established for the binary erasure channel. Successive cancellation list decoding of single parity-check product codes is then described. For the provided example, simulations over the binary input additive white Gaussian channel show that successive cancellation list decoding outperforms belief propagation decoding applied to the code graph. Finally, the performance of the concatenation of a product code with a high-rate outer code is investigated via distance spectrum analysis. Examples of concatenations performing within $0.7$ dB from the random coding union bound are provided., Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. The revised version of the first submission. Major changes: 1) No dedicated section for numerical results. Instead, simulations are provided right after the relevant section. 2) More simulation results are added, including those for the BEC. Comparisons to the state-of-art polar codes and 5G-NR LDPC codes provided

Spatially coupled serially concatenated codes (SC-SCCs) are a class of spatially coupled turbo-like codes, which have a close-to-capacity performance and low error floor. In this paper we investigate the impact of coupling memory, block length, decoding window size, and number of iterations on the performance, complexity, and latency of SC-SCCs. Several design tradeoffs are presented to see the relation between these parameters in a wide range. Also, our analysis provides design guidelines for SC-SCCs in different scenarios to make the code design independent of block length. As a result, block length and coupling memory can be exchanged flexibly without changing the latency and complexity. Also, we observe that the performance of SC-SCCs is improved with respect to the uncoupled ensembles for a fixed latency and complexity., Comment: Presented at the IEEE 93rd Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC) 2021-Spring

We investigate error propagation in sliding window decoding of braided convolutional codes (BCCs). Previous studies of BCCs have focused on iterative decoding thresholds, minimum distance properties, and their bit error rate (BER) performance at small to moderate frame length. Here, we consider a sliding window decoder in the context of large frame length or one that continuously outputs blocks in a streaming fashion. In this case, decoder error propagation, due to the feedback inherent in BCCs, can be a serious problem.In order to mitigate the effects of error propagation, we propose several schemes: a \emph{window extension algorithm} where the decoder window size can be extended adaptively, a resynchronization mechanism where we reset the encoder to the initial state, and a retransmission strategy where erroneously decoded blocks are retransmitted. In addition, we introduce a soft BER stopping rule to reduce computational complexity, and the tradeoff between performance and complexity is examined. Simulation results show that, using the proposed window extension algorithm, resynchronization mechanism, and retransmission strategy, the BER performance of BCCs can be improved by up to four orders of magnitude in the signal-to-noise ratio operating range of interest, and in addition the soft BER stopping rule can be employed to reduce computational complexity., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1801.03235

In this paper, we introduce two new methods of mitigating decoder error propagation for low-latency sliding window decoding (SWD) of spatially coupled low density parity check (SC-LDPC) codes. Building on the recently introduced idea of \emph{check node (CN) doping} of regular SC-LDPC codes, here we employ variable node (VN) doping to fix (set to a known value) a subset of variable nodes in the coupling chain. Both of these doping methods have the effect of allowing SWD to recover from error propagation, at a cost of a slight rate loss. Experimental results show that, similar to CN doping, VN doping improves performance by up to two orders of magnitude compared to undoped SC-LDPC codes in the typical signal-to-noise ratio operating range. Further, compared to CN doping, VN doping has the advantage of not requiring any changes to the decoding process.In addition, a log-likelihood-ratio based window extension algorithm is proposed to reduce the effect of error propagation. Using this approach, we show that decoding latency can be reduced by up to a significant fraction without suffering any loss in performance.

Braided convolutional codes (BCCs) are a class of spatially coupled turbo-like codes that can be described by a $(2,3)$-regular compact graph. In this paper, we introduce a family of $(d_v,d_c)$-regular GLDPC codes with convolutional code constraints (CC-GLDPC codes), which form an extension of classical BCCs to arbitrary regular graphs. In order to characterize the performance in the waterfall and error floor regions, we perform an analysis of the density evolution thresholds as well as the finite-length ensemble weight enumerators and minimum distances of the ensembles. In particular, we consider various ensembles of overall rate $R=1/3$ and $R=1/2$ and study the trade-off between variable node degree and strength of the component codes. We also compare the results to corresponding classical LDPC codes with equal degrees and rates. It is observed that for the considered LDPC codes with variable node degree $d_v>2$, we can find a CC-GLDPC code with smaller $d_v$ that offers similar or better performance in terms of BP and MAP thresholds at the expense of a negligible loss in the minimum distance.

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-GLDPC code ensembles demonstrating capacity approaching thresholds via the threshold saturation effect; (2) an asymptotic analysis of the minimum distance and free distance properties of SC-GLDPC code ensembles, demonstrating that the ensembles are asymptotically good; and (3) an analysis of the finite-length scaling behavior of both GLDPC block codes and SC-GLDPC codes based on a peeling decoder (PD) operating on a binary erasure channel (BEC). Results are compared to GLDPC block codes, and the advantages and disadvantages of SC-GLDPC codes are discussed., Comment: Revised version submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Spatially coupled turbo-like codes (SC-TCs) have been shown to have excellent decoding thresholds due to the threshold saturation effect. Furthermore, even for moderate block lengths, simulation results demonstrate very good bit error rate performance (BER) in the waterfall region. In this paper, we discuss the effect of spatial coupling on the performance of TCs in the finite block-length regime. We investigate the effect of coupling on the error-floor performance of SC-TCs by establishing conditions under which spatial coupling either preserves or improves the minimum distance of TCs. This allows us to investigate the error-floor performance of SC-TCs by performing a weight enumerator function (WEF) analysis of the corresponding uncoupled ensembles. While uncoupled TC ensembles with close-to-capacity performance exhibit a high error floor, our results show that SC-TCs can simultaneously approach capacity and achieve very low error floor.

In this paper, we perform a threshold analysis of braided convolutional codes (BCCs) on the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The decoding thresholds are estimated by Monte-Carlo density evolution (MC-DE) techniques and compared with approximate thresholds from an erasure channel prediction. The results show that, with spatial coupling, the predicted thresholds are very accurate and quickly approach capacity if the coupling memory is increased. For uncoupled ensembles with random puncturing, the prediction can be improved with help of the AWGN threshold of the unpunctured ensemble.

In this paper, we study sliding window decoding of braided convolutional codes (BCCs) in the context of a streaming application, where decoder error propagation can be a serious problem. A window extension algorithm and a resynchronization mechanism are introduced to mitigate the effect of error propagation. In addition, we introduce a soft bit-error-rate stopping rule to reduce computational complexity, and the tradeoff between performance and complexity is examined. Simulation results show that, using the proposed window extension algorithm and resynchronization mechanism, the error performance of BCCs can be improved by up to three orders of magnitude with reduced computational complexity., Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, submitted for IEEE ISIT2018

We introduce successive cancellation (SC) decoding of product codes (PCs) with single parity-check (SPC) component codes. Recursive formulas are derived, which resemble the SC decoding algorithm of polar codes. We analyze the error probability of SPC-PCs over the binary erasure channel under SC decoding. A bridge with the analysis of PCs introduced by Elias in 1954 is also established. Furthermore, bounds on the block error probability under SC decoding are provided, and compared to the bounds under the original decoding algorithm proposed by Elias. It is shown that SC decoding of SPC-PCs achieves a lower block error probability than Elias' decoding.

We introduce a unified ensemble for turbo-like codes (TCs) that contains the four main classes of TCs: parallel concatenated codes, serially concatenated codes, hybrid concatenated codes, and braided convolutional codes. We show that for each of the original classes of TCs, it is possible to find an equivalent ensemble by proper selection of the design parameters in the unified ensemble. We also derive the density evolution (DE) equations for this ensemble over the binary erasure channel. The thresholds obtained from the DE indicate that the TC ensembles from the unified ensemble have similar asymptotic behavior to the original TC ensembles.

Braided convolutional codes (BCCs) are a class of spatially coupled turbo-like codes (SC-TCs) with excellent belief propagation (BP) thresholds. In this paper, we analyze the performance of BCCs in the finite block-length regime. We derive the average weight enumerator function (WEF) and compute the union bound on the performance for the uncoupled BCC ensemble. Our results suggest that the union bound is affected by poor distance properties of a small fraction of codes. By computing the union bound for the expurgated ensemble, we show that the floor improves substantially and very low error rates can be achieved for moderate permutation sizes. Based on the WEF, we also obtain a bound on the minimum distance which indicates that it grows linearly with the permutation size. Finally, we show that the estimated error floor for the uncoupled BCC ensemble is also valid for the coupled ensemble by proving that the minimum distance of the coupled ensemble is lower bounded by the minimum distance of the uncoupled ensemble.

In this paper, we introduce the concept of spatially coupled turbo-like codes (SC-TCs) as the spatial coupling of a number of turbo-like code ensembles. In particular, we consider the spatial coupling of Berrou et al. parallel concatenated codes (PCCs) and Benedetto et al. serially concatenated codes (SCCs). Furthermore, we propose two extensions of braided convolutional codes (BCCs), a class of turbo-like codes which have an inherent spatially coupled structure, to higher coupling memories, and show that these yield improved belief propagation (BP) thresholds as compared to the original BCC ensemble. We derive the exact density evolution (DE) equations for SC-TCs and analyze their asymptotic behavior on the binary erasure channel. We also consider the construction of families of rate-compatible SC-TC ensembles. Our numerical results show that threshold saturation of the belief propagation (BP) decoding threshold to the maximum a-posteriori threshold of the underlying uncoupled ensembles occurs for large enough coupling memory. The improvement of the BP threshold is especially significant for SCCs and BCCs, whose uncoupled ensembles suffer from a poor BP threshold. For a wide range of code rates, SC-TCs show close-to-capacity performance as the coupling memory increases. We further give a proof of threshold saturation for SC-TC ensembles with identical component encoders. In particular, we show that the DE of SC-TC ensembles with identical component encoders can be properly rewritten as a scalar recursion. This allows us to define potential functions and prove threshold saturation using the proof technique recently introduced by Yedla et al.., Comment: Published in IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 63, no. 10, pp. 6199-6215, Oct. 2017

In this paper we prove threshold saturation for spatially coupled turbo codes (SC-TCs) and braided convolutional codes (BCCs) over the binary erasure channel. We introduce a compact graph representation for the ensembles of SC-TC and BCC codes which simplifies their description and the analysis of the message passing decoding. We demonstrate that by few assumptions in the ensembles of these codes, it is possible to rewrite their vector recursions in a form which places these ensembles under the category of scalar admissible systems. This allows us to define potential functions and prove threshold saturation using the proof technique introduced by Yedla et al.., Comment: 5 pages, 3figures

Three areas of ongoing research in channel coding are surveyed, and recent developments are presented in each area: spatially coupled Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes, non-binary LDPC codes, and polar coding., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Communications and Networks, JCN copyright applies

In this paper, we construct protograph-based spatially coupled low-density parity-check (SC-LDPC) codes by coupling together a series of L disjoint, or uncoupled, LDPC code Tanner graphs into a single coupled chain. By varying L, we obtain a flexible family of code ensembles with varying rates and frame lengths that can share the same encoding and decoding architecture for arbitrary L. We demonstrate that the resulting codes combine the best features of optimized irregular and regular codes in one design: capacity approaching iterative belief propagation (BP) decoding thresholds and linear growth of minimum distance with block length. In particular, we show that, for sufficiently large L, the BP thresholds on both the binary erasure channel (BEC) and the binary-input additive white Gaussian noise channel (AWGNC) saturate to a particular value significantly better than the BP decoding threshold and numerically indistinguishable from the optimal maximum a-posteriori (MAP) decoding threshold of the uncoupled LDPC code. When all variable nodes in the coupled chain have degree greater than two, asymptotically the error probability converges at least doubly exponentially with decoding iterations and we obtain sequences of asymptotically good LDPC codes with fast convergence rates and BP thresholds close to the Shannon limit. Further, the gap to capacity decreases as the density of the graph increases, opening up a new way to construct capacity achieving codes on memoryless binary-input symmetric-output (MBS) channels with low-complexity BP decoding., Comment: Submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

In this paper, we investigate the impact of spatial coupling on the thresholds of turbo-like codes. Parallel concatenated and serially concatenated convolutional codes as well as braided convolutional codes (BCCs) are compared by means of an exact density evolution (DE) analysis for the binary erasure channel (BEC). We propose two extensions of the original BCC ensemble to improve its threshold and demonstrate that their BP thresholds approach the maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) threshold of the uncoupled ensemble. A comparison of the different ensembles shows that parallel concatenated ensembles can be outperformed by both serially concatenated and BCC ensembles, although they have the best BP thresholds in the uncoupled case., Comment: Invited paper, International Conference on Signal Processing and Communications, SPCOM 2014, Bangalore, India, July 22-25, 2014

In this paper, we give an overview of spatially coupled turbo codes (SC-TCs), the spatial coupling of parallel and serially concatenated convolutional codes, recently introduced by the authors. For presentation purposes, we focus on spatially coupled serially concatenated codes (SC-SCCs). We review the main principles of SC-TCs and discuss their exact density evolution (DE) analysis on the binary erasure channel. We also consider the construction of a family of rate-compatible SC-SCCs with simple 4-state component encoders. For all considered code rates, threshold saturation of the belief propagation (BP) to the maximum a posteriori threshold of the uncoupled ensemble is demonstrated, and it is shown that the BP threshold approaches the Shannon limit as the coupling memory increases. Finally we give some simulation results for finite lengths., Comment: Invited paper, IEEE Int. Symp. Wireless Communications Systems (ISWCS), Aug. 2014

In this paper, we introduce the concept of spatially coupled turbo codes (SC-TCs), as the turbo codes counterpart of spatially coupled low-density parity-check codes. We describe spatial coupling for both Berrou et al. and Benedetto et al. parallel and serially concatenated codes. For the binary erasure channel, we derive the exact density evolution (DE) equations of SC-TCs by using the method proposed by Kurkoski et al. to compute the decoding erasure probability of convolutional encoders. Using DE, we then analyze the asymptotic behavior of SC-TCs. We observe that the belief propagation (BP) threshold of SC-TCs improves with respect to that of the uncoupled ensemble and approaches its maximum a posteriori threshold. This phenomenon is especially significant for serially concatenated codes, whose uncoupled ensemble suffers from a poor BP threshold., Comment: in Proc. 8th International Symposium on Turbo Codes & Iterative Information Processing 2014, Bremen, Germany, August 2014. To appear. (The PCC ensemble is changed with respect to the one in the previous version of the paper. However, it gives identical thresholds)

A novel code construction based on spatially coupled low-density parity-check (SC-LDPC) codes is presented. The proposed code ensembles are described by protographs, comprised of several protograph-based chains characterizing individual SC-LDPC codes. We demonstrate that code ensembles obtained by connecting appropriately chosen SC-LDPC code chains at specific points have improved iterative decoding thresholds compared to those of single SC-LDPC coupled chains. In addition, it is shown that the improved decoding properties of the connected ensembles result in reduced decoding complexity required to achieve a specific bit error probability. The constructed ensembles are also asymptotically good, in the sense that the minimum distance grows linearly with the block length. Finally, we show that the improved asymptotic properties of the connected chain ensembles also translate into improved finite length performance., Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Families of generalized spatially-coupled low-density parity-check (GSC-LDPC) code ensembles can be formed by terminating protograph-based generalized LDPC convolutional (GLDPCC) codes. It has previously been shown that ensembles of GSC-LDPC codes constructed from a protograph have better iterative decoding thresholds than their block code counterparts, and that, for large termination lengths, their thresholds coincide with the maximum a-posteriori (MAP) decoding threshold of the underlying generalized LDPC block code ensemble. Here we show that, in addition to their excellent iterative decoding thresholds, ensembles of GSC-LDPC codes are asymptotically good and have large minimum distance growth rates., Comment: Submitted to the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory 2013

In this paper we investigate the effect of spatial coupling applied to the recently-proposed coded slotted ALOHA (CSA) random access protocol. Thanks to the bridge between the graphical model describing the iterative interference cancelation process of CSA over the random access frame and the erasure recovery process of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes over the binary erasure channel (BEC), we propose an access protocol which is inspired by the convolutional LDPC code construction. The proposed protocol exploits the terminations of its graphical model to achieve the spatial coupling effect, attaining performance close to the theoretical limits of CSA. As for the convolutional LDPC code case, large iterative decoding thresholds are obtained by simply increasing the density of the graph. We show that the threshold saturation effect takes place by defining a suitable counterpart of the maximum-a-posteriori decoding threshold of spatially-coupled LDPC code ensembles. In the asymptotic setting, the proposed scheme allows sustaining a traffic close to 1 [packets/slot]., Comment: To be presented at IEEE ISIT 2012, Boston

Codes constructed from connected spatially coupled low-density parity-check code (SC-LDPCC) chains are proposed and analyzed. It is demonstrated that connecting coupled chains results in improved iterative decoding performance. The constructed protograph ensembles have better iterative decoding thresholds compared to an individual SC-LDPCC chain and require less computational complexity per bit when operating in the near-threshold region. In addition, it is shown that the proposed constructions are asymptotically good in terms of minimum distance., Comment: Submitted to International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2012

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 numbers, which define the size of the smallest, non-empty trapping sets, for these asymptotically good, periodically time-varying LDPCC code ensembles., Comment: To be presented at the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory

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 example, we perform an asymptotic trapping set analysis of terminated LDPC convolutional code ensembles. In addition to capacity approaching iterative decoding thresholds and linearly growing minimum distance, we find that the smallest non-empty trapping set of a terminated ensemble grows linearly with block length., Comment: Presented at the 2011 Information Theory and Applications Workshop

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, minimum distance that grows linearly with block length, and capacity approaching iterative decoding thresholds, despite the fact that the terminated ensembles are almost regular. In this paper, we investigate the properties of the quasi-cyclic (QC) members of such an ensemble. We show that an upper bound on the minimum Hamming distance of members of the QC sub-ensemble can be improved by careful choice of the component protographs used in the code construction. Further, we show that the upper bound on the minimum distance can be improved by using arrays of circulants in a graph cover of the protograph., Comment: To be presented at the 2010 IEEE Information Theory Workshop, Dublin, Ireland

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 families, i.e., the ensembles are asymptotically good. We find that, as the termination length increases, families of "asymptotically regular" codes with capacity approaching iterative decoding thresholds and declining minimum distance growth rates are obtained, allowing a code designer to trade-off between distance growth rate and threshold. Further, we show that the thresholds and the distance growth rates can be improved by carefully choosing the component protographs used in the code construction., Comment: Presented at the 2010 Information Theory and Applications Workshop, San Diego, CA.

In this paper, we present a method of constructing new families of LDPC block code ensembles formed by terminating irregular protograph-based LDPC convolutional codes. Using the accumulate-repeat-by-4-jagged-accumulate (AR4JA) protograph as an example, a density evolution analysis for the binary erasure channel shows that this flexible design technique gives rise to a large selection of LDPC block code ensembles with varying code rates and thresholds close to capacity. Further, by means of an asymptotic weight enumerator analysis, we show that all the ensembles in this family also have minimum distance that grows linearly with block length, i.e., they are asymptotically good., Comment: To be presented at the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory

An ensemble of LDPC convolutional codes with parity-check matrices composed of permutation matrices is considered. The convergence of the iterative belief propagation based decoder for terminated convolutional codes in the ensemble is analyzed for binary-input output-symmetric memoryless channels using density evolution techniques. We observe that the structured irregularity in the Tanner graph of the codes leads to significantly better thresholds when compared to corresponding LDPC block codes., Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Adelaide, Australia, September 4-9, 2005