Code generator and decoder for communications systems operating using hybrid codes to allow for multiple efficient uses of the communications systems

摘要

A method of encoding data for transmissions from a source to a destination over a communications channel is provided. The method operates on an ordered set of source symbols and may generate zero or more redundant symbols from the source symbols, wherein data is encoded in a first step according to a simple FEC code and in a second step, data is encoded according to a second FEC code, more complex than the first FEC code. The first FEC code and/or the second FEC code might comprise coding known in the art. These steps result in two groups of encoded data in such a way that a low-complexity receiver may make use of one of the groups of encoded data while higher complexity receivers may make use of both groups of encoded data.

主权项

1. A method of decoding information received over a communications channel from an encoder, the method comprising:
receiving symbols from the communications channel, the received symbols including received source symbols of encoded data, first code encoding symbols generated from the source symbols according to a first FEC code, second code encoding symbols generated from the source symbols according to a second FEC code, first FEC code keys, and second FEC code keys, the first FEC code different from the second FEC code; using the received source symbols, the first code encoding symbols, and the first FEC code keys to first recover one or more missing source symbols; and if source symbols are still missing following the first recovery,
converting the first code encoding symbols and the first FEC code keys into converted encoding symbols and converted FEC code keys suitable for use for decoding using the second FEC code, andusing the received source symbols, the recovered source symbols, the second code encoding symbols, the converted encoding symbols, the second FEC code keys, and the converted FEC code keys to further recover one or more missing source symbols.