LDPC codes based on serially concatenated multiple parity-check codes

This letter proposes a new class of serially concatenated codes that can be viewed as low-density parity- check (LDPC) codes. They are derived from multiple serially concatenated single parity-check (M-SC-SPC) codes, but they use different components, that we call multiple parity-check (MPC) codes. In comparison with M-SC-SPC codes, the new scheme achieves better performance with similar complexity. The proposed codes can represent an alternative to the well-known family of repeat accumulate (RA) codes, being based on the same principles.