Blind time-period synchronization for LDPC Convolutionally Coded transmission

In this paper we propose a scheme for blind time-period synchronization of Low-Density Parity-Check Convolutional Codes (LDPC CC) over the AWGN channel. Reliable time-period synchronization for LDPC CC coded transmission is a requirement for successful decoding at the receiving end. The proposed scheme exploits parity-check constraints incorporated into LDPC CC coded stream, and variants based both on the hard and soft-detected symbols are presented. We show that time-period synchronization can be acquired during the time-frame of one LDPC CC time period, which is considerably faster and less complex when compared to the block LDPC coded transmission of similar performance. Additionally, by appending the time-period synchronization preprocessors, we effectively incorporate the time-period synchronization into the iterative LDPC CC decoder “pipeline” structure. Our simulation study demonstrates flexibility and excellent performance of the proposed scheme.