Counting and Entropy Bounds for Structure-Avoiding Spatially-Coupled LDPC Constructions

Abstract

Designing large coupling memory quasi-cyclic spatially-coupled LDPC (QC-SC-LDPC) codes with low error floors requires eliminating specific harmful substructures (e.g., short cycles) induced by edge spreading and lifting. Building on our work~\cite{r15} that introduced a Clique Lov\'asz Local Lemma (CLLL)-based design principle and a Moser--Tardos (MT)-type constructive approach, this work quantifies the size and structure of the feasible design space. Using the quantitative CLLL, we derive explicit lower bounds on the number of feasible edge-spreading and lifting assignments satisfying a given family of structure-avoidance constraints, and further obtain bounds on the number of non-equivalent solutions under row/column permutations. Moreover, via R\'enyi entropy bounds for the MT distribution, we provide a computable lower bound on the number of distinct solutions that the MT algorithm can output, giving a concrete diversity guarantee for randomized constructions. Specializations for eliminating 4-cycles yield closed-form bounds as functions of system parameters, offering a principled way to select the memory and lifting degree and to estimate the remaining search space.