Rate-compatible punctured low-density parity-check codes with bit-interleaved coded modulation

We design bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) schemes based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. On time-varying channels, it is necessary to adapt the code rate according to channel conditions. Rate-compatible punctured-code (RCPC) is such an efficient and flexible scheme that it uses a single code which can be punctured in rate compatible fashion across a range of code rate. Therefore, when the capacity rule is used to determine the rate of component LDPC codes, we construct rate-compatible component LDPC codes by carefully selecting degree distributions, followed by optimal parity puncturing. Simulation results show that our system performs within 1 dB above the capacity at bit error rate 10^-6 across a range of rates.