A Survey on Old and New Approximations to the Function ϕ(x) Involved in LDPC Codes Density Evolution Analysis Using a Gaussian Approximation

Abstract

Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes are currently being deeply analyzed through algorithms that require the capability of addressing their iterative decoding convergence performance. Since it has been observed that the probability distribution function of the decoder’s log-likelihood ratio messages is roughly Gaussian, a multiplicity of moderate entanglement strategies to this analysis has been suggested. The first of them was proposed in Chung et al.’s 2001 paper, where the recurrent sequence, characterizing the passage of messages between variable and check nodes, concerns the function ϕ(x), therein specified, and its inverse. In this paper, we review this old approximation to the function ϕ(x), one variant on it obtained in the same period (proposed in Ha et al.’s 2004 paper), and some new ones, recently published in two 2019 papers by Vatta et al. The objective of this review is to analyze the differences among them and their characteristics in terms of accuracy and computational complexity. In particular, the explicitly invertible, not piecewise defined approximation of the function ϕ(x), published in the second of the two abovementioned 2019 papers, is shown to have less relative error in any x than most of the other approximations. Moreover, its use conducts to an important complexity reduction, and allows better Gaussian approximated thresholds to be obtained.