Structured LDPC codes from permutation matrices free of small trapping sets

This paper introduces a class of structured low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes whose parity check matrices are arrays of permutation matrices. The permutation matrices are obtained from Latin squares and form a finite field under some matrix operations. They are chosen so that the Tanner graphs do not contain subgraphs harmful to iterative decoding algorithms. The construction of column-weight-three codes is presented. Although the codes are optimized for the Gallager A/B algorithm over the binary symmetric channel (BSC), their error performance is very good on the additive white Gaussian noise channel (AWGNC) as well.