Efficient low-complexity and low-latency forward error correction (FEC) decoding is vital in high-speed optical receivers. The weighted bit-flipping (WBF) decoding algorithm is a low-complexity and high-performance iterative decoder for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, devised for symmetric Gaussian channels. In this paper, we present a generalization of the WBF algorithm and its variants to discrete and continuous asymmetric optical channels which have signal-dependent noises. We have employed a fully analytical approach to derive the generalized WBF decoders, and show that they can achieve a net coding gain within 0.5 dB of that of the soft-decision near-optimal decoding.
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