On the Girth of Quasi-Cyclic Protograph LDPC Codes

In this paper, we study the relationships between the girth of the Tanner graph of a quasi-cyclic (QC) protograph low-density parity-check (LDPC) code, the lifting degree, and the size and the structure of the base graph. As a result, for a given base graph, we derive a lower bound on the lifting degree as a necessary condition for the lifted graph to have a certain girth. This also provides an upper bound on the girth of the family of graphs lifted from a given base graph with a given lifting degree. The upper bounds derived here, which are applicable to both regular and irregular base graphs with no parallel edges, are in some cases more general and in some other cases tighter than the existing bounds. The results presented in this work can be used to design cyclic liftings with relatively small degree and relatively large girth. As an example, we present new QC protograph LDPC code constructions with girth 8 using fully connected base graphs. These constructions provide upper bounds on the lifting degree required for achieving girth 8 using fully connected base graphs.