Running minimum message passing ldpc decoding

A decoding method for delivering soft-decision outputs from codeword symbols encoded with a Low-Density Parity Check code, said code comprising a number of codeword symbols checked by a number of parity check equations, wherein each parity check equation checks a limited number of codeword symbols and each codeword symbol is checked by a limited number of parity check equations, the method comprising a step, denoted running minimum step, of determining minimum values from an input sequence of input reliability values associated with a set of codeword symbols checked by a same parity check equation, wherein said running minimum step comprises the following iterative sub-steps:

• reading a reliability value from the input sequence of input reliability values,
• comparing said reliability value with a first and second stored value,
• overwriting the first stored value with said reliability value if said reliability value is smaller than said first and second stored value,
• overwriting the second stored value with said reliability value if said reliability value is smaller than said second stored value and bigger than said first stored value.