Pseudo-Codewords in LDPC Convolutional Codes

Iterative message-passing decoders for low-density parity-check (LDPC) block codes are known to be subject to decoding failures due to so-called pseudo-codewords. These failures can cause the large signal-to-noise ratio performance of message-passing decoding to be worse than that predicted by the maximum-likelihood decoding union bound. In this paper we study the pseudo-codeword problem for the class of LDPC convolutional codes decoded continuously using an iterative, sliding window, message-passing decoder. In particular, for an LDPC convolutional code derived by unwrapping a quasi-cyclic LDPC block code, we show that the free pseudo-weight of the convolutional code is at least as large as the minimum pseudo-weight of the underlying quasi-cyclic code. This result parallels the well-known relationship between the free Hamming distance of convolutional codes and the minimum Hamming distance of their quasi-cyclic counterparts. Finally, simulation results are included that show improved performance for unwrapped LDPC convolutional codes compared to their underlying quasi-cyclic codes