LDPC codes for fading Gaussian broadcast channels

In this work, we study coding over a class of two-user broadcast channels (BCs) with additive white Gaussian noise and multiplicative fading known at the receivers only. Joint decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes is analyzed. The message update rule at the mapping node linking the users' codes is derived and is found to exhibit an interesting soft interference cancellation property. High performance codes are found using the differential evolution optimization technique and extrinsic information transfer analysis adapted to our multiuser setting. The optimized codes have rates very close to the boundary of the achievable region for binary constrained input for both faded and unfaded channels. Simulation results for moderate block lengths show that our codes operate within less than 1 dB of their respective threshold.