A novel puncturing scheme for rate-compatible low-density parity-check codes

In this paper, we present an effective puncturing scheme for rate-compatible low-density parity-check (RC-LDPC) codes. Our scheme is based on the criterion of maximum average girth which is an important performance parameter for the construction of RC-LDPC codes. We select a pattern wherein the punctured bits are far apart from each other in the Tanner graph of the codes by sorting algorithm, and then puncture the bits with the maximum average girth. In the process, there is no need to do any optimization. By simulations, the proposed codes show good performance under puncturing over a wide range of rates. The introduced puncturing criterion results in lower bit error rate and error floor when compared with random puncturing. Moreover, the performance of proposed method is similar to the direct structured LDPC codes by progressive edge growth (PEG). But the scheme is very simple to implement and lowers the complexity of encoding and decoding.