Non‐binary protograph low‐density parity‐check codes for space communications

SUMMARY Protograph‐based non‐binary low‐density parity‐check (LDPC) codes with ultra‐sparse parity‐check matrices are compared with binary LDPC and turbo codes (TCs) from space communication standards. It is shown that larger coding gains are achieved, outperforming the binary competitors by more than 0.3 dB on the additive white Gaussian noise channel (AWGN). In the short block length regime, the designed codes gain more than 1 dB with respect to the binary protograph LDPC codes recently proposed for the next generation up‐link standard of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems.