On unequal error protection of finite-length LDPC codes over BECs: A scaling approach

In this paper, we explore a novel approach to evaluate the inherent UEP (unequal error protection) properties of irregular LDPC (low-density parity-check) codes over BECs (binary erasure channels). Exploiting the finite-length scaling methodology, suggested by Amraoui et. al., we introduce a scaling approach to approximate the bit erasure rates of variable nodes with different degrees in the waterfall region of the peeling decoder. Comparing the bit erasure rates obtained from Monte Carlo simulation with the proposed scaling approximations, we demonstrate that the scaling approach provides a close approximation for a wide range of code lengths (between 1000 and 8000). In view of the complexity associated with the numerical evaluation of the scaling approximation, we also derive simpler upper and lower bounds.