Performance evaluation of LDPC codes in the presence of colored noise

Abstract

The class of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes includes the most powerful capacity-approaching codes reported to date. As a result, LDPC codes have been considered for application in new communication standards such as 10GBASE-T Ethernet. However, the successful use of LDPC codes for such applications requires a better understanding of the effects of signal impairments on their error correction capabilities. In this paper, the performance of various LDPC codes in the presence of Additive Colored Gaussian Noise (ACGN) is evaluated and compared with the effects of conventional Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). The simulation results provide insight into the performance of LDPC codes in real systems in which the noise components can indeed be correlated. In particular, our results show that at the same Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), ACGN is more detrimental to the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance than AWGN.