Ldpc and Rateless Channel Codes

Although the concept of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) CODES ACCRUES FROM Robert G. Gallager's PhD thesis dated in 1962 and from his1968 book Information Theory and Reliable Communications, its renaissance was heralded by DJC MacKay, RM Neal: Good codes based on very sparse matrices, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 1995 - Springer. Since then literally thousands of papers were written on the subject o LDPC codes, since they are capable f approaching the performance of turbo codes, while being license-free, which is an important benefit for industry as a whole. This momentum then led to the standardisation of numerous systems, which rely on LDPC codes and hence a book on the implementation-oriented aspects of LDPC codes, in particular to protography LDPC codes, which substantially reduce their storage requirements. The original LDPC codes relied on the pseudo-random allocation of the row- and column-parity checks, while pantograph LDPC codes design their allocation in a more sophisticated manner. The family of rateless codes is younger and less well documented, which justifies the treatment of this subject in the book.