Performance of LDPC coded modulations in Power Line Communications

Abstract

We discuss the performance of different coding schemes based on the use of short LDPC codes, which are suitable for the application in Power Line Communications (PLC) systems, where low latency and high spectral efficiency is requested. We identify the class of LDPC codes appropriate for this purpose in the codes used in IEEE 802.16e standard (WiMAX). We then propose different coding schemes and conduct a performance analysis in terms of their capability of achieving the capacity in an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel, while keeping low the overall latency of the encoding/decoding process. We also consider the presence of bursty impulse noise, in order to investigate a typical PLC scenario. The analysis proves that WiMAX standard LDPC codes, used with proper coding schemes, achieve competitive trade-off between spectral and energy efficiency, maintaining the compatibility with the considered latency constraint.