Iterative joint detection and decoding for nonbinary LDPC coded partial-response channels with written-in errors

In this paper, we consider iterative detection and decoding for nonbinary low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded partial-response (PR) channels with written-in errors, which are assumed to be the output of a binary symmetrical channel (BSC). We propose a symbol-level BCJR detector to produce directly soft information of nonbinary LDPC code symbols based on a sectionalized joint BSC/PR trellis. Simulation results show that the proposed receiver outperforms bit-level schemes and enables nonbinary LDPC codes to achieve noticeable performance gains over their binary counterparts.