Layered Approx-Regular LDPC: Code Construction and Encoder/Decoder Design

Layered approximately regular (LAR) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are proposed, with which one single pair of encoder and decoder support various code lengths and code rates. The parity check matrices of LAR-LDPC codes have a "layer-block-cell" structure with some additional constraints. An encoder architecture is then designed for LAR-LDPC codes, by making two improvements to the Richardson-Urbanke approach: the forward substitution operation is entirely removed and the dense-matrix-vector multiplication is handled using feedback shift-registers. A partially parallel decoder architecture is also designed for LAR-LDPC codes, where a layered modified min-sum decoding algorithm is used to trade off among complexity, speed, and performance. More importantly, the interconnection network, which is inevitable for partially parallel decoders, has much lower hardware complexity compared with that for general LDPC codes. Both the encoder and decoder architectures are highly flexible in code length and code rate.