Spatially Coupled Generalized LDPC Codes : Introduction and Overview

Generalized low-density parity-check (GLDPC) codes are a class of LDPC codes in which the standard single parity check (SPC) constraints are replaced by more general constraints, viz., constraints defined by a linear block code. These stronger constraints typically result in improved error floor performance, due to better minimum distance and trapping set properties, at a cost of some increased decoding complexity. In this paper, we summarize some recent results on spatially coupled generalized low-density parity-check (SC-GLDPC) codes. Results are compared to GLDPC block codes and the advantages and disadvantages of SC-GLDPC codes are discussed