Spectral efficiency maximization using pragmatic modern rate-compatible code families
Thomas R. Halford, Cenk Kose · 2008
In communication links employing incremental redundancy (IR), the strength of the code used for forward error correction is adapted in order to maximize instantaneous spectral efficiency in time-varying channels. In this paper, a simple two-phase IR transmission scheme is studied in a block-fading channel in order to illuminate the effects on protocol design and achievable spectral efficiency of the performance, rate range, and rate granularity of the chosen rate-compatible (RC) code family. Two pragmatic RC families based on Flexible Low-Density Parity-Check (F-LDPC) codes are studied alongside a notional family with infinite rate precision that matches theoretical guidelines for the performance of practical coding schemes (i.e., limits on finite block size and non-vanishing block error rate transmission over modulation constrained channels) at all points.