A low-complexity algorithm for decoding of M-ary LDPC codes

M-ary LDPC codes provide higher performances than their binary counterpart but suffer from highest decoding complexity. The use of stochastic decoding algorithm can reduce the decoding complexity, but the computational complexity of probability generation is very high. A simple method to fast generate the probability especially in high-order modulation schemes is proposed in this paper. Simulation results show the proposed algorithm causes negligible performance degradation with reduction in computational complexity, which gives some advantages in hardware implementation of the decoders.