In this paper upper and lower bounds on the probability of decoding failure
under maximum likelihood decoding are derived for different (nonbinary) Raptor
code constructions. In particular four different constructions are considered;
(i) the standard Raptor code construction, (ii) a multi-edge type construction,
(iii) a construction where the Raptor code is nonbinary but the generator
matrix of the LT code has only binary entries, (iv) a combination of (ii) and
(iii). The latter construction resembles the one employed by RaptorQ codes,
which at the time of writing this article represents the state of the art in
fountain codes. The bounds are shown to be tight, and provide an important aid
for the design of Raptor codes.Comment: Submitted for revie
