Rate-compatible spatially coupled LDPC codes via repeat-accumulation extension

We propose the construction of rate-compatible spatially coupled low-density parity-check (SC-LDPC) codes. For a given high-rate SC-LDPC mother code, a family of low-rate member codes can be obtained by extending the protogragh of the mother code with repeat-accumulation (RA). Rate compatibility is obtained by adjusting the RA-extension parameters. Continuous code rate is achieved without extra cost. Density evolution analysis shows that the iterative decoding thresholds of all the member codes of the rate-compatible family are very close to the Shannon limits over the binary erasure channels.