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Datum Systems
for
All M7 and PSM-500 Series Modems
Introduction
Today, a new class of FEC is available from Datum Systems, FlexLDPC, which leverages the Flexible LDPC (FLDPC) technology from TrellisWare Technologies, Inc. F-LDPC provides a single powerful FEC code solution for
any satellite link. Datum Systems chose TrellisWares F-LDPC for its LDPC implementation because it offers
outstanding performance and flexibility in both block sizes and code rates.
Until recently, advances in forward error correction (FEC) design, such as Viterbi, Sequential, Trellis Code
Modulation (TCM), Concatenated Viterbi/Reed-Solomon, Turbo Product Codes (TPC) or Low Density Parity
Check codes (LDPC) have not been able to provide a complete solution to the requirements of a modern
satellite communication channel. Typically, there are many tradeoffs between bandwidth, power, processing
delay and coding gains that in the past have required the use of several different classes of FEC. Datum
Systems has solved this dilemma using the F-LDPC core.
Years of field experience and simulation have shown that the performance of the modern iterative codes in
widespread use today for satellite communications (TPC and LDPC) offer outstanding coding gain
improvements over the legacy Intelsat coding methods of Sequential, Viterbi/Reed-Solomon and TCM. The
disadvantages of the modern codes were usually (1) the large block sizes required for maximum coding gain
result in large processing delays at low data rates, and (2) the cost of the hardware required for the iterative
decoding and large block sizes can be prohibitive for high data rates. Datums implementation of F-LDPC
provides an exceptional range of code rates and block sizes that deliver excellent performance. In addition,
advances in FPGA technology and decoder design provide high data rate throughput with low associated
hardware cost.
Comparison of TPC, traditional LDPC and Datum Systems flexible LDPC Performance
For any noisy communication channel there exists a theoretical maximum information rate for the channel for
any particular noise level. This limit is called the Shannon limit of the channel, and the equations describing
this maximum information rate were first presented by Claude Shannon in 1948. Shannons equations
describe an upper limit for FEC efficiency vs. BER and noise level. Classes of FEC codes and differing code rates
and block sizes are often evaluated for performance by how close they approach the Shannon limit. Although
there is much in the literature describing TPCs and traditional LDPCs that approach the Shannon limit, these
are typically only at optimized code rates and block sizes. For example, TPCs perform best at high code rates
(0.95) and large block sizes (i.e. 16kbit), but this is not a practical code for a low data rate, power limited
satellite link. The fact is that TPC, traditional LDPC and Datums LDPC all perform very close to the Shannon
limit under certain conditions. A more practical way to compare competing FEC types is to stack up their
performance in real-world satellite channel situations.
Are flexible-LDPCs better than TPCs? The answer is YES! As shown in Figure - 1, performance graphs for
Datum Systems LDPC Rate 3/4 vs. Industry Standard TPC Rate 3/4 for 8PSK and QPSK show a clear advantage
for F-LDPC. For the 8psk case, the F-LDPC 1k block has the same BER performance as Compatible TPC, but
with almost half the end to end delay. The Flexible LDPC 2k block offered by Datum has roughly the same
delay as the Industry Standard TPC, but with 0.5 dB better performance at 1E-7 BER. The same results hold for
QPSK.
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
21.8
21.8
41.9
1E-9
47
47
41.9
1E-10
0.5
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
Eb/No
7
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
Figure - 1
The advantage of flexible LDPC over TPC is more dramatic in Figure 2, which shows performance graphs for
Datum LDPC Rate 1/2 vs. Industry Standard TPC rate 21/44 (which is not as bandwidth efficient as Rate 1/2).
In Figure - 2, LDPC Rate 1/2 1k block not only has less than 1/3 of the delay as Compatible TPC, but the
performance is over 0.7 dB better at 1E-7.
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
25.3
44.4
41.9
49.6
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
41
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
Figure - 2
Is Datums flexible-LDPC option better than traditional LDPCs? The answer again is YES! As shown in Figure
3, the performance graphs for Datum LDPC Rate 3/4 vs. Traditional LDPC Rate 3/4 for 16QAM show a clear
advantage for Datum LDPC. As shown in the Figure, the Datum LDPC Rate 3/4 2k Block has the same
performance as Traditional LDPC Rate 3/4, but at less than 1/9 the delay! The Datum LDPC Rate 3/4 4k Block
has about 0.5 dB better BER performance, but at less than 1/4 the delay!
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
41.9
1E-9
82.4
395
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
Figure -3
Conclusion and Datum LDPC Highlights
Datum Systems has integrated a highly Scalable and Flexible LDPC option into its M7 and PSM-500 Series
satellite modems. This quantum leap in LDPC capability removes the barriers that forced users of traditional
LDPCs to decide between high performance and low latency. Datum Systems LDPC can give you both. In
addition, this new low cost implementation makes it very cost competitive to current Turbo Product Codes,
with significantly better performance and lower latency.
Additional Datum LDPC Highlights Include:
64 kbps
2.8 ms
61.5 ms
128 kbps
1.4 ms
30.8 ms
256 kbps
0.7 ms
15.4 ms
512 kbps
0.3 ms
7.7 ms
7.5 ms
110.6 ms
3.8 ms
55.3 ms
1.9 ms
27.7 ms
0.9 ms
13.8 ms
42.7 ms
46.1 ms
58.9 ms
64.9 ms
21.4 ms
23.2 ms
29.6 ms
32.6 ms
10.8 ms
11.7 ms
14.9 ms
16.4 ms
5.5 ms
6.0 ms
7.6 ms
8.3 ms
7.2 ms
13.4 ms
25.3 ms
49.6 ms
98.0 ms
195.0 ms
388.6 ms
3.7 ms
6.8 ms
12.8 ms
25.1 ms
49.5 ms
98.5 ms
196.2 ms
1.9 ms
3.5 ms
6.6 ms
12.8 ms
25.2 ms
50.2 ms
100.0 ms
1.0 ms
1.8 ms
3.4 ms
6.7 ms
13.1 ms
26.1 ms
51.9 ms
6.7 ms
12.2 ms
22.8 ms
44.4 ms
87.5 ms
173.7 ms
346.1 ms
3.4 ms
6.2 ms
11.6 ms
22.5 ms
44.3 ms
87.8 ms
175.0 ms
1.8 ms
3.2 ms
5.9 ms
11.5 ms
22.6 ms
44.9 ms
89.4 ms
1.0 ms
1.7 ms
3.1 ms
6.0 ms
11.8 ms
23.4 ms
46.5 ms
6.7 ms
11.5 ms
21.8 ms
41.9 ms
82.4 ms
163.1 ms
325.0 ms
3.4 ms
5.9 ms
11.0 ms
21.2 ms
41.7 ms
82.5 ms
164.4 ms
1.8 ms
3.0 ms
5.7 ms
10.9 ms
21.4 ms
42.2 ms
84.1 ms
1.0 ms
1.6 ms
3.0 ms
5.7 ms
11.2 ms
22.1 ms
43.9 ms
6.3 ms
11.1 ms
20.6 ms
39.6 ms
77.6 ms
153.9 ms
306.3 ms
3.3 ms
5.7 ms
10.5 ms
20.1 ms
39.3 ms
77.9 ms
155.0 ms
1.7 ms
2.9 ms
5.4 ms
10.3 ms
20.2 ms
39.9 ms
79.4 ms
0.9 ms
1.6 ms
2.8 ms
5.4 ms
10.6 ms
20.9 ms
41.6 ms
6.5 ms
10.8 ms
20.0 ms
38.1 ms
74.6 ms
147.3 ms
293.6 ms
3.3 ms
5.5 ms
10.2 ms
19.3 ms
37.8 ms
74.7 ms
148.7 ms
1.7 ms
2.9 ms
5.2 ms
9.9 ms
19.4 ms
38.3 ms
76.3 ms
0.9 ms
1.5 ms
2.8 ms
5.2 ms
10.2 ms
20.1 ms
40.0 ms
6.1 ms
10.6 ms
19.3 ms
37.0 ms
72.3 ms
143.0 ms
284.5 ms
3.2 ms
5.4 ms
9.9 ms
18.8 ms
36.6 ms
72.5 ms
144.1 ms
1.7 ms
2.8 ms
5.1 ms
9.7 ms
18.8 ms
37.2 ms
74.0 ms
0.9 ms
1.5 ms
2.7 ms
5.1 ms
9.9 ms
19.6 ms
38.9 ms
6.1 ms
10.2 ms
18.9 ms
35.8 ms
70.2 ms
138.7 ms
276.1 ms
3.1 ms
5.2 ms
9.6 ms
18.2 ms
35.6 ms
70.3 ms
139.9 ms
1.6 ms
2.7 ms
5.0 ms
9.4 ms
18.3 ms
36.1 ms
71.8 ms
0.9 ms
1.4 ms
2.6 ms
5.0 ms
9.7 ms
19.0 ms
37.8 ms
0.01
0.001
45500 - 8QAM, F-LDPC-8k Block, Rate 1/2
45510 - 8QAM, F-LDPC-8k Block, Rate 2/3
45520 - 8QAM, F-LDPC-8k Block, Rate 3/4
45530 - 8QAM, F-LDPC-8k Block, Rate 14/17
45540 - 8QAM, F-LDPC-8k Block, Rate 7/8
45550 - 8QAM, F-LDPC-8k Block, Rate 10/11
45560 - 8QAM, F-LDPC-8k Block, Rate 16/17
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
Eb/No
2
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
11
11.5
12
Figure - 4
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
Eb/No
3
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
11
11.5
12
12.5
13
Figure - 5
Typical Performance Curves for Selected LDPC Block Sizes and Code Rates
Datum Systems PSM-500 Modem Typical BER Performance
BER
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
Eb/No
1E-10
0.5
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
0.5
Eb/No
1
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
0.01
0.001
0.0001
1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
1E-8
1E-9
1E-10
1.5
Eb/No
2
2.5
3.5
4.5
5.5
6.5
7.5
8.5
9.5
10
10.5
11
11.5