Asymptotically good LDPC convolutional codes with AWGN channel thresholds close to the Shannon limit

In this paper, we perform an iterative decoding threshold analysis of LDPC block code ensembles formed by terminating (J,K)-regular and irregular AR4JA-based LDPC convolutional codes. These ensembles have minimum distance growing linearly with block length and their thresholds approach the Shannon limit as the termination factor tends to infinity. Results are presented for various ensembles and termination factors, which allow a code designer to trade-off between distance growth rate and threshold.