Modeling a Sliding Window Decoder for Spatially Coupled LDPC Codes

Due to their capacity achieving performance with sliding window decoding (SWD), spatially coupled LDPC (SC-LDPC) codes are emerging as candidates for next generation channel coding applications. In this paper we present a general model of SWD of SC-LDPC codes and develop an analysis that allows us to estimate error probability performance under decoder error propagation conditions that can occur when low latency operation is desired. We also show how the model parameters can be estimated and indicate how the model can be used to predict the performance of code doping techniques used to mitigate the effects of decoder error propagation.