Non-Uniform Windowed Decoding For Multi-Dimensional Spatially-Coupled LDPC Codes

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a non-uniform windowed decoder for multi-dimensional spatially-coupled LDPC (MD-SC-LDPC) codes over the binary erasure channel. An MD-SC-LDPC code is constructed by connecting together several SC-LDPC codes into one larger code that provides major benefits over a variety of channel models. In general, SC codes allow for low-latency windowed decoding. While a standard windowed decoder can be naively applied, such an approach does not fully utilize the unique structure of MD-SC-LDPC codes. In this paper, we propose and analyze a novel non-uniform decoder to provide more flexibility between latency and reliability. Our theoretical derivations and empirical results show that our non-uniform decoder greatly improves upon the standard windowed decoder in terms of design flexibility, latency, and complexity.