  This paper produces a rate-compatible protograph LDPC code at 1k information
blocklength with superior performance in both waterfall and error floor
regions. The design of such codes has proved difficult in the past because the
constraints imposed by structured design (protographs), rate-compatibility, as
well as small block length, are not easily satisfied together. For example, as
the block length decreases, the predominance of decoding threshold as the main
parameter in coding design is reduced, thus complicating the search for good
codes. Our rate-compatible protograph codes have rates ranging from 1/3 to 4/5
and show no error floor down to $10^{-6}$ FER.
