Rate Compatible LDPC Codes Design for Shallow Water Acoustic Communications

Abstract

The fast temporal variations shallow water acoustic (SWA) channels need the temporal variations channel coding scheme at the acceptable cost. Hence, flexible channel coding rate, adjusted according to different ocean channel characteristics, should be desired in the design of practical error control SWA communication system. In this paper, we propose rate-compatible LDPC (RC-LDPC) codes to improve the communication system reliability for SWA communications. The proposed SWA system adopting RC-LDPC codes consists of three important preprocessing: channel state information (CSI) estimator, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimator and RC-LDPC pattern. For the estimation error, we define and derive the sensitivity to imperfect CSI and imperfect SNR. Then the design of RC-LDPC codes and SWA channel profile are described. Furthermore, the RC-LDPC performance pattern is given and sensitivity to estimation error of CSI and SNR are analyzed via simulation. It is shown that RC-LDPC codes have good performances with wide range of rates in SWA channels. Finally, coding rate distributions of RC-LDPC codes in different SNR at BER below 10-4 for SWA channel are investigated.