Programmable Architecture for Flexi-Mode QC-LDPC Decoder Supporting Wireless LAN/MAN Applications and Beyond

A programmable architecture is proposed for a flexi-mode quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check code decoder. The proposed architecture has the following advantages: 1) Code rate, length, and pattern can be programmed on the fly; 2) decoding complexity is reduced by algorithm modification; 3) memory read/write operation is reduced by access optimization and hierarchical memory structure; and 4) an early stopping scheme is adopted to give power efficiency, particularly in the low-signal-to-noise-ratio region. A decoder chip is implemented in an SMIC 180-nm 1.8-V CMOS technology. Experimental results show the advantages in terms of flexibility, area, power, and error-correction performance.