Comtech EF Data SLM-5650A Installation And Operation Manual page 302

The LDPC method on its own produces an undesirable 'flaring' in the Bit Error Rate (BER) vs.
Eb/No characteristic, and for this reason it is desirable to concatenate a short BCH code with
LDPC. This concatenation produces almost vertical BER vs. Eb/No curves, as can be seen in the
performance graphs that are presented later. In order to take full advantage of the coding gain
increase that LDPC provides, it became necessary to find an alternative to 8PSK. Comtech EF
Data has, therefore, developed an 8QAM approach that permits acquisition and tracking at much
lower values of Eb/No than 8PSK. Comtech's implementation of 8QAM is the subject of a U.S.
Patent, granted in 2007.
C.8.2 LDPC versus TPC
Is LDPC better than TPC? The answer must be 'sometimes, but not always', and there are issues
such as latency that must be taken into consideration. Error free transmission is not possible for
values of spectral efficiency (capacity) vs. Eb/No above these limit curves. The horizontal distance
to the limit provides a metric of overall performance. Figure D-7 graphs the performance of
various TPC and LDPC modes relative to the Shannon Limit – the Channel Capacity is shown for
both QPSK and 8PSK. It can be seen from this graph that, for Code Rates above 3/4, Comtech's
TPCs are very close (1-1.5 dB) to the Shannon Limit. However, at 3/4 and below, LDPCs are
performing 0.7-1.2 dB better than TPCs. It is clear that, in order to provide the best possible
performance over the range of code rates from 1/2 to 0.95, both an LDPC and a TPC codec need
to be offered.
Figure C-1. TPC & LDPC Modes Performance (Relative to Shannon Limit)
Appendix C C–8
SLM-5650A Satellite Modem
Revision 10
MN-SLM-5650A