Finite-Length Algebraic Spatially-Coupled Quasi-Cyclic LDPC Codes

The replicate-and-mask (R&M) construction of finite-length spatially-coupled (SC) LDPC codes is proposed in this paper. The proposed R&M construction generalizes the conventional matrix unwrapping construction and contains it as a special case. The R&M construction of a class of algebraic spatially coupled (SC) quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes over arbitrary finite fields is demonstrated. The girth, rank, and time-varying periodicity of the proposed R&M SC QC LDPC codes are analyzed. The error rate performance of finite-length nonbinary algebraic SC QC LDPC codes is investigated with window decoding. Compared to the conventional unwrapping construction, it is found through numerical simulations that the R&M construction resulted in SC QC LDPC codes with better block error rate performance and lower error floors. With a flooding schedule decoder, it is shown that the proposed R&M algebraic SC QC LDPC codes have better error performance than the corresponding LDPC block codes and random SC codes. The R&M construction of irregular SC QC LDPC codes is demonstrated. It is shown that low-complexity regular puncturing schemes can be deployed on these codes to construct families of rate-compatible irregular SC QC LDPC codes with good performance.