Apparatus and method for integrating error control and authentication for satellite uplinks

摘要

A method and apparatus (200) for generating a sender authenticatable codeword (152) for transmission in an uplink to a satellite are presented. A method and apparatus (202) for authenticating a codeword (152) transmitted in a satellite uplink are also presented. The generation of a sender authenticatable codeword (152) is performed by combining an information block (143) and an authenticating filling sequence block (144). A parity block (148) is formed over the combined block (146) and the resultant true codeword (150) is truncated to remove part or all of the authenticating filling sequence block (144). Authentication of the codeword (152) is performed by receiving an observable (152') and combining an authenticating filling sequence block (144') with the observable (152') to form an extended observable (150'). The extended observable (150') is decoded and a decoded observable and an error rate estimate formed. Authenticity is then determined based on the error rate estimate, which may be an error rate estimate for the authenticating filling sequence block (144') portion of the decoded observable (154').