Performance Prediction of Nonbinary Forward Error Correction in Optical Transmission Experiments

In this paper, we compare different metrics to predict the error rate of optical systems based on nonbinary forward error correction (FEC). It is shown that the correct metric to predict the performance of coded modulation based on nonbinary FEC is the mutual information. The accuracy of the prediction is verified in a detailed example with multiple constellation formats, FEC overheads in both simulations and optical transmission experiments over a recirculating loop. It is shown that the employed FEC codes must be universal if performance prediction based on thresholds is used. A tutorial introduction into the computation of the threshold from optical transmission measurements is also given.Comment: submitted to IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technolog

Flexible LDPC Decoder Architectures

Flexible channel decoding is getting significance with the increase in number of wireless standards and modes within a standard. A flexible channel decoder is a solution providing interstandard and intrastandard support without change in hardware. However, the design of efficient implementation of flexible low-density parity-check (LDPC) code decoders satisfying area, speed, and power constraints is a challenging task and still requires considerable research effort. This paper provides an overview of state-of-the-art in the design of flexible LDPC decoders. The published solutions are evaluated at two levels of architectural design: the processing element (PE) and the interconnection structure. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of different design choices is carried out, and comparison is provided in terms of achieved flexibility, throughput, decoding efficiency, and area (power) consumption

Optimization of Permutation Key for Pi-Rotation LDPC Codes

The original low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes were developed by Robert Gallager in early 1960 and are based on a random parity-check matrix construction. In the mid 1990's it was discovered that LDPC codes could be modified slightly to provide the more powerful error correction. These newer LDPC codes, based on an irregular column weight in the underlying check matrix, were still defined with random construction techniques. The Pi-rotation LDPC codes discovered by Echard are a family of LDPC codes completely defined by a small set of integers and have several symmetrical features that are exploited to build efficient encoding and decoding designs. The Pi-rotation codes can be extended to include irregular matrix patterns to obtain the highest performance. In this dissertation we develop a heuristic algorithm to find the best parity-check matrix for Pi-rotation LDPC codes