Finite geometries, such as Euclidean and projective geometries, are powerful mathematical tools for constructing error-control codes. In the 1960s and 1970s, finite geometries were successfully used to construct many classes of easily implementable majority-logic decodable codes. In 2000, Kou, Lin, and Fossorier [1–3] showed that finite geometries can also be used to construct LDPC codes that perform well and close to the Shannon theoretical limit with iterative decoding based on belief propagation. These codes are called finite-geometry (FG)-LDPC codes. FG-LDPC codes form the first class of LDPC codes that are constructed algebraically. Since 2000, there have been many major developments in construction of LDPC codes based on various structural properties of finite geometries [4–18]. In this chapter, we put together all the major constructions of LDPC codes based on finite geometries under a unified frame. We begin with code constructions based on Euclidean geometries and then go on to discuss those based on projective geometries.

Construction of LDPC Codes Based on Lines of Euclidean Geometries

This section presents a class of cyclic LDPC codes and a class of quasi-cyclic (QC) LDPC codes constructed using lines of Euclidean geometries. Before we present the constructions of these two classes of Euclidean-geometry (EG)-LDPC codes, we recall some fundamental structural properties of a Euclidean geometry that have been discussed in Chapter 2.