High efficiency broadband transmission with LDPC codes over GF(2s)

In this paper, we discuss the suitability and the improvement potential of LDPC codes over a finite extension field GF(2^s) for future high efficiency broadband transmission systems through comparison with state-of-the-art coding schemes, i.e. LDPC codes according to IEEE 802.11n and DVB-X2. We first point out the differences between non-binary LDPC codes and their binary counterparts and discuss their advantages for high efficiency broadband transmission systems. For this, two mapping strategies can be introduced which allow for directly combining higher-order modulation and non-binary LDPC codes. We present simulation results in terms of bit error rates and packet error rates for various higher-order (square) quadrature amplitude modulations and LDPC codes over different finite extension fields for the AWGN channel and the Rayleigh fading channel. The evaluation reveals that the application of non binary LDPC codes allows for the design of efficient transmission schemes with high spectral efficiencies. However, this is achieved at the expense of increased complexity.