Low Density Parity Check Codes over Half-duplex Relay Channels

We describe coded cooperation strategies for half-duplex relay channels based on low density parity check (LDPC) codes. In addition to designing practical coding schemes and developing appropriate receiver structures, we also exploit the use of average mutual information to characterize and analyze the convergence behavior of the LDPC coded relay systems. Both the convergence analysis and simulation results show that the LDPC coded relay system can approach the theoretical information rates very closely (0.8 ~ 1.1 dB) over half-duplex relay channels, and their performance is superior to other alternatives, including, the use of turbo codes. Furthermore, we consider the optimization of the time-division parameters and the bit allocation strategies