Spatially Coupled Code Chains with Lateral Connectivity over Unstable Parallel Channels

We propose a new coding scheme for parallel binary erasure channels that may have time-varying characteristics. The proposed scheme consists of several spatially coupled codes, each assigned to a different channel, that are sparsely coupled between each other. This sparse coupling, denoted lateral connectivity helps the decoding waves of the different sub-codes to propagate, even if the associated channel undergoes an burst error event. The new ensemble is analyzed using density evolution and it is shown that it outperforms parallel, independent spatially coupled codes.