Analysis and Improvement of Error-Floor Performance for JSCC Scheme Based on Double Protograph LDPC Codes

In a joint source-channel coding (JSCC) system, excessive source compression can cause an error floor. In the original JSCC scheme based on double protograph LDPC (DP-LDPC) codes, only connections exist between check nodes (CNs) of the source protograph and variable nodes (VNs) of the channel protograph, and error floors are observed. In this paper, we investigate the joint protograph that forms the basis of a DP-LDPC code. The joint protograph consists of a source protograph, a channel protograph, and connections between the two protographs. Our main focus is on the complete-source-variable-linking (CSVL) protomatrix of the joint protograph, which determines the error floor of the DP-LDPC code. We propose a generalized source protograph extrinsic information transfer (GSP-EXIT) algorithm for evaluating the source decoding thresholds of the CSVL protomatrix. Based on the proposed algorithm, we analyze CSVL protomatrices with regular or irregular source protographs. We present design criteria for connections between VNs of the source protograph and CNs of the channel protograph. Such design rules will result in a higher source decoding threshold, which implies a lower error floor. We also propose a differential evolution algorithm for optimizing the source protograph. We present/compare analytical results and/with simulation results, and conclude that they are consistent.