Layered Normalized Min-Sum Decoding with Bit Flipping for FDPC Codes

Abstract: Fair-density parity-check (FDPC) codes have been recently introduced demonstrating improved performance compared to low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes standardized in 5G systems particularly in high-rate regimes. In this paper, we introduce a layered normalized min-sum (LNMS) message-passing decoding algorithm for the FDPC codes. We also introduce a syndrome-guided bit flipping (SGBF) method to enhance the error-correction performance of our proposed decoder. The LNMS decoder leverages conflict graph coloring for efficient layered scheduling, enabling faster convergence by grouping non-conflicting check nodes and updating variable nodes immediately after each layer. In the event of decoding failure, the SGBF method is activated, utilizing a novel reliability metric that combines log-likelihood ratio (LLR) magnitudes and syndrome-derived error counts to identify the least reliable bits. A set of candidate sequences is then generated by performing single-bit flips at these positions, with each candidate re-decoded via LNMS. The optimal candidate is selected based on the minimum syndrome weight. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed decoder. Numerical simulations on FDPC$(256,192)$ code with a bit-flipping set size of $T = 128$ and a maximum of $5$ iterations demonstrate that the proposed decoder achieves approximately a $0.5\,\mathrm{dB}$ coding gain over standalone LNMS decoding at a frame error rate (FER) of $10<sup>{-3}$, while providing coding gains of $0.75-1.5\,\mathrm{dB}$ over other state-of-the-art codes including polar codes and 5G-LDPC codes at the same length and rate and also under belief propagation decoding.