BEP evaluation of 5G LDPC codes in a pre-amplified optical PPM receiver

We present results for the performance of a pre-amplified optical pulse-position modulation (PPM) receiver that utilizes the low-density parity-check (LDPC) correction codes of the 5G standard. The code construction is suitable for correcting burst errors that are introduced by PPM. Simulation results show that the LDPC codes can provide a very significant real gain, provided that the code rate is chosen appropriately. We find that the code rates that minimize the bit-error-probabilities (BEPs) of the system range between 2/3 and 22/26, with higher code rates being required in receivers that operate under increased optical noise. It is also shown that a comparable real gain is obtained for both the sum-product and min-sum decoders, while the power penalty of the latter one is only limited to 0.2 dB, when the aforementioned code rates are utilized.