LDPC Codes from Latin Squares Free of Small Trapping Sets

This paper is concerned with the construction of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with low error floors. Two main contributions are made. First, a new class of structured LDPC codes is introduced. The parity check matrices of these codes are arrays of permutation matrices which are obtained from Latin squares and form a finite field under some matrix operations. Second, a method to construct LDPC codes with low error floors on the binary symmetric channel (BSC) is presented. Codes are constructed so that their Tanner graphs are free of certain small trapping sets. These trapping sets are selected from the Trapping Set Ontology for the Gallager A/B decoder. They are selected based on their relative harmfulness for a given decoding algorithm. We evaluate the relative harmfulness of different trapping sets for the sum product algorithm (SPA) by using the topological relations among them and by analyzing the decoding failures on one trapping set in the presence or absence of other trapping sets.