Rate-Compatible Length-Scalable Quasi-Cyclic Spatially-Coupled LDPC Codes

The capability of QC-SC-LDPC codes to be employed in broadcasting systems has been studied in previous research. However, the implementation-oriented features such as rate-compatibility and length-scalability for QC-SC-LDPC codes have not been well studied yet. In this paper, we first propose a new implementation-oriented structure of QC-SC-LDPC codes for broadcasting systems, with support for rate-compatibility and length-scalability. Then, the three-dimensional (3D-) grid-based (G-) progressive edge growth and lifting (PEGL) method is proposed to construct QC-SC-LDPC codes with that structure, which can achieve desirable performance across different code rates and code lengths within the given design complexity. Finally, a family of rate-compatible length-scalable QC-SC-LDPC codes are constructed via the 3D-G-PEGL method, and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of that method. Furthermore, the scaling behaviors of QC-SC-LDPC codes are observed from the provided simulation results.