Adding RLL Properties to Four CCSDS LDPC Codes Without Increasing Their Redundancy

Abstract

This paper presents the construction of Run Length Limited (RLL) Error Control Codes (ECCs) from four Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Codes specified by Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). The obtained RLL-ECCs present a practical alternative to the CCSDS codes with pseudo-randomizers. Their advantage is that the maximal runlengths of equal symbols in their codeword sequences are guaranteed, which is not the case if the common approach with pseudo-randomizers is used. The other advantages are that no additional redundancy is introduced into encoded codewords and that the encoding and decoding procedures of the original error control CCSDS codes do not have to be modified in the following cases. In the first case if hard decoding is used and the transmission channel can be modeled as a Binary Symmetric Channel (BSC) or in the second case if soft decoding and coherent Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation is used and the appropriate transmission channel model is an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel.