The complexity/performance balanced decoder for low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes is preferred in practical wireless communication systems. A low complexity LDPC decoder for the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standard is achieved in DSP. An approximate decoding algorithm, normalized min-sum algorithm, is used in the implementation for its low amounts of computation. To reduce the performance loss caused by the approximation, the parameters of the normalized min-sum algorithm are determined by calculating and finding the minimum value of thresholds through density evolution. The minimum value which indicates the best performance of the decoding algorithm is corresponding with the optimized parameters. In implementation, the memory cost is saved by decomposing the parity-check matrix into submatrices to store and the computation of passing message in decoding is accelerated by using the intrinsic function of DSP. The performance of the decoder with optimized factors is simulated and compared with the ideal BP decoder. The result shows they have about the same performance.
