Structured IRA Codes: Performance Analysis and Construction

In this letter, we present design techniques for structured irregular repeat-accumulate (S-IRA) codes with low error-rate floors. These S-IRA codes need not be quasi-cyclic, permitting flexibility in code dimension, length, and rate. We present a simple ensemble estimate of the level of the error-rate floor of finite-length IRA codes on the additive white Gaussian noise channel. This performance estimate provides guidance on the choice of IRA code column weights which yield low floors. We also present two design algorithms for S-IRA codes accompanied by software- and hardware-based performance results which demonstrate their low floors. Lastly, we present two design algorithms for multirate S-IRA code families implementable by a single encoder/decoder