  In this paper, we revisit the design of Raptor codes for binary input
additive white Gaussian noise (BIAWGN) channels, where we are interested in
very low signal to noise ratios (SNRs). A linear programming degree
distribution optimization problem is defined for Raptor codes in the low SNR
regime through several approximations. We also provide an exact expression for
the polynomial representation of the degree distribution with infinite maximum
degree in the low SNR regime, which enables us to calculate the exact value of
the fractions of output nodes of small degrees. A more practical degree
distribution design is also proposed for Raptor codes in the low SNR regime,
where we include the rate efficiency and the decoding complexity in the
optimization problem, and an upper bound on the maximum rate efficiency is
derived for given design parameters. Simulation results show that the Raptor
code with the designed degree distributions can approach rate efficiencies
larger than 0.95 in the low SNR regime.
