Improving spatially coupled LDPC codes by connecting chains

In this paper, we study ensembles of connected spatially coupled low-density parity-check codes (SC-LDPCCs), i.e., ensembles described by graphs in which regular SC-LDPCC chains of various lengths serve as edges. We show that, by carefully connecting individual SC-LDPCC chains, we obtain LDPC code ensembles with improved iterative decoding thresholds compared to those of a single coupled chain, in addition to reducing the decoding complexity required to achieve a specific bit error probability. Moreover, we show that, like the component SC-LDPCC chains, the proposed constructions have a typical minimum distance that grows linearly with block length.