The F-LDPC Family: High-Performance Flexible Modern Codes for Flexible Radio

Abstract

Flexibility is an increasingly important aspect of radio modern design. In this paper, flexibility within the physical (PHY) layer in general, and the forward error correction (FEC) component in particular, is examined in detail. Following a discussion of the need for flexible modern code designs that exhibit universally good performance across a wide range of operational scenarios (i.e., input block size, code rate, modulation), TrellisWare Technologies, Inc.'s Flexible Low-Density Parity- Check (F-LDPC) codes are offered as an example of a high- performance modern coding solution for flexible radio designs. Specifically, the F-LDPC family offers performance within 0.8 dB of theoretical bounds across a wide range of operational scenarios with a design that is especially amenable to low-complexity, high- thoughput reconfigurable hardware implementation.