Optimal code rates for concatenated codes on a PR4-equalized magnetic recording channel

At some nominal recording density, the read signal in digital magnetic recording resembles a Class IV partial response (PR4) signal and, hence, may be equalized to the PR4 shape with relatively little noise enhancement. When coding is added, for a fixed user density, the recording density must increase as a result of coding overhead, and the read signal will resemble PR4 to a lesser extent. Equalization to PR4 in this case will produce excessive noise enhancement. Thus, coding overhead (or rate) must be selected for optimum tradeoff between code strength and noise enhancement. Toward this end, we provide results for high-rate concatenated codes, assuming a Lorentzian recording channel model. In addition to examining optimal code rates, we compare parallel and serial concatenated code performance on the PR4 channel.