Efficient design of non-binary LDPC codes for magnetic recording channels, robust to error bursts

In this work we consider an optimized design of q-ary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes that takes into account their burst error correction capability. In recent works, the performance of LDPC decoding in presence of noise bursts has been related to the structure of the parity-check matrix. In particular, two approaches to characterize the burst error correction capabilities have been proposed in the literature. Following these ideas, we compare different matrix designs in order to choose the best matrix constraints to be maximized in a PEG construction. Several non-binary LDPC codes, generated with the proposed design methods are compared. Their performance are analyzed in the context of magnetic recording channels, where they are considered a promising alternative to the Reed Solomon (RS) codes.