On general linear block code decoding using the sum-product iterative decoder

The sum-product iterative decoder, conventionally used for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, hold promise as a decoder for general linear block code decoding. However, the promise is only partly fulfilled because, as we show experimentally, the decoder performance degrades rapidly as a function of parity check matrix weight. Even in the case of decoder failure, however, we demonstrate that there is information present in the decoder output probabilities that can still help with the decoding problem.