Hardware Implementations of CCSDS Deep Space LDPC Codes for a Satellite Transponder

Error-correction coding is a technique that adds mathematical structure to a message, allowing corruptions to be detected and corrected when the message is received. This is especially important for deep space satellite communications, since the long distances and low signal power levels often cause message corruption. A very strong type of error-correction coding known as LDPC codes was recently standardized for use with space communications. This project implements the encoding and decoding algorithms required for a small satellite radio to be able to use these LDPC codes. Several decoder architectures are implemented and compared by their performance, speed, and complexity. Using these LDPC decoders requires knowledge of the received signal and noise levels, so an appropriate algorithm for estimating these parameters is developed and implemented. The LDPC encoder is implemented using a flexible architecture that allows the entire standardized family of ten LDPC codes to be encoded using the same hardware