In this paper, the application of non-binary low-density parity-check (NBLDPC) codes to MIMO systems which employ hundreds of antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver has been proposed. Together with the well-known low-complexity MMSE detection, the moderate length NBLDPC codes can operate closer to the MIMO capacity, e.g., capacity-gap about 3.5 dB (the best known gap is more than 7 dB). To further reduce the complexity of MMSE detection, a novel soft output detection that can provide an excellent coded performance in low SNR region with 99% complexity reduction is also proposed. The asymptotic performance is analysed by using the Monte Carlo density evolution. It is found that the NBLDPC codes can operate within 1.6 dB from the MIMO capacity. Furthermore, the merit of using the NBLDPC codes in large MIMO systems with the presence of imperfect channel estimation and spatial fading correlation which are both the realistic scenarios for large MIMO systems is also pointed out.
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