Spatially Coupled Codes and Optical Fiber Communications: An Ideal Match?

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of spatially coupled LDPC codes in optical fiber communications, demonstrating their low error rates, hardware efficiency, and adaptability to varying channel conditions, making them promising for long-haul systems.

Contribution

It optimizes irregular spatially coupled LDPC codes for optical systems and shows their superior performance and universality compared to traditional codes.

Findings

Low error rates achieved with FPGA-based decoders

Outperforms conventional block LDPC codes

Demonstrates universality across different channel conditions

Abstract

In this paper, we highlight the class of spatially coupled codes and discuss their applicability to long-haul and submarine optical communication systems. We first demonstrate how to optimize irregular spatially coupled LDPC codes for their use in optical communications with limited decoding hardware complexity and then present simulation results with an FPGA-based decoder where we show that very low error rates can be achieved and that conventional block-based LDPC codes can be outperformed. In the second part of the paper, we focus on the combination of spatially coupled LDPC codes with different demodulators and detectors, important for future systems with adaptive modulation and for varying channel characteristics. We demonstrate that SC codes can be employed as universal, channel-agnostic coding schemes.