Efficient Search Path Reduction for NB-LDPC Codes with T-EMS Algorithm.

In comparison to the forward-backward update of extended min-sum (EMS) algorithm, the trellis EMS (T-EMS) algorithm for non-binary low density parity check codes (NB-LDPC) introduces an extra trellis column during check nodes (CNs) updates, significantly enhancing parallelism and facilitating hardware implementation. However, in high-order or high code rate scenarios, the T-EMS algorithm exhibits considerable latency caused by excessive configurations searching for the largest reliability selection. To address this, the paper propose an enhanced algorithm, named as path reduction T-EMS (RT-EMS) algorithm, to simplify the configuration space through applying an additional filtering to the elements in each column of the trellis, retaining only the elements that are deemed more trustworthy from the column’s perspective. Moreover, a data compensation strategy is also proposed to tackle the data scarcity issues for some syndrome values in the extra trellis column. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate that RT-EMS algorithm can achieve more than 50% complexity reduction with a negligible performance degradation.