Generalized Gaussian distribution-based LDPC receiver for power-line communications

Power-line communications (PLC) usually suffers from the effects of non-white (correlated) noise, which results from the memory in the channel. In order to combat the effects of the channel memory, interleavers, which introduce a large amount of delay, are often employed together with error control coding. Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have been adopted in the recent broadband PLC (BPLC) standards, including the Homeplug AV specification. Analysis of the noise amplitude distribution of each individual frequency component across the PLC noise spectrum has recently shown that noise can be modeled using the generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD). In this paper, an LDPC-coding based receiver that utilizes the GGD noise model is developed, and it is shown that the proposed receiver structure outperforms the conventional receivers designed under the Gaussian noise assumption. Real noise measurements and Homeplug AV specification definitions are employed to demonstrate the high error performance of the proposed receiver structure.