Communications systems and methods employing parallel coding without interleaving

A communications system for communicating a source sequence of information symbols over a communications medium, the system comprising:

• parallel error correction encoding means including:
• first error correction encoding means for encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a first error correction code to produce a first encoded sequence of symbols, wherein the first error correction code comprises a random error correction code;
• second error correction encoding means for encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a second error correction code to produce a second encoded sequence of symbols, wherein the second error correction code comprises a burst error correction code;
• multiplexing means, responsive to said first and second error correction encoding means, for multiplexing the first and second encoded sequences of symbols to produce a sequence of communications symbols;
• communications symbol processing means, responsive to said multiplexing means, for processing the sequence of communications symbols to produce a communications signal;
• communications signal communicating means, responsive to said communications symbol processing means, for communicating the communications signal over the communications medium;
• means for processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received communications symbols;
• demultiplexing means, responsive to said means for processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received communications symbols, for demultiplexing the sequence of received communications symbols according to the predetermined multiplexing sequence to produce a first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols and a second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols;
• and
• means, responsive to said demultiplexing means, for decoding the first and second demultiplexed sequences according to the first and second error correction codes to produce an estimated sequence of information symbols representing an estimate of the source sequence of information symbols.

An apparatus for producing a communications signal from a source sequence of information symbols, the apparatus comprising:

• parallel error correction encoding means for encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a plurality of error correction codes to produce a plurality of encoded sequences of symbols, a respective one of the plurality of error correction codes producing one of the plurality of encoded sequences of symbols from the source sequence of information symbols without interleaving;
• wherein said parallel error correction encoding means comprises:
• a first error correction encoding means for encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a first error correction code to produce a first encoded sequence of symbols without interleaving the source sequence of information symbols, wherein said first error correction code comprises a random error correction code;
• a second error correction encoding means for encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a second error correction code to produce a second encoded sequence of symbols without interleaving the source sequence of information symbols, wherein said second error correction code comprises a burst error correction code;
• means, responsive to said parallel error correction encoding means, for combining the plurality of encoded sequences of symbols to produce a sequence of communications symbols, wherein said means for combining the plurality of encoded sequences of symbols comprises multiplexing means, responsive to said first and second error correction encoding means, for multiplexing the first and second encoded sequences of symbols to produce a sequence of communication symbols;
• and
• means, responsive to said means for combining, for processing the sequence of communications symbols to produce a communications signal.

An apparatus for estimating a source sequence of information symbols from a communications signal received from a communications medium, the communications signal representing a multiplexing of first and second encoded sequences of symbols representing first and second versions of the source sequence of information symbols encoded according to first and second error correction codes, respectively, combined with noise introduced by the communications medium, the apparatus comprising:

• means for processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received communications symbols;
• demultiplexing means, responsive to said means for processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received symbols, for demultiplexing the sequence of received communications symbols to produce a first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols and a second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols corresponding to the first encoded sequence of symbols and the second encoded sequence of symbols, respectively;
• and
• means, responsive to said demultiplexing means, for decoding the first and second demultiplexed sequences according to the first and second error correction codes to produce an estimated sequence of information symbols representing an estimate of the source sequence of information symbols, wherein said means for decoding the first and second demultiplexed sequences includes:
• first soft output decoding means for decoding the first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols according to the first error correction code to produce a first sequence of soft information values;
• second soft output decoding means for decoding the second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols to produce a second sequence of soft information values;
• and
• means, responsive to said first and second soft output decoding means, for combining the first and second sequences of soft information values to produce an estimated sequence of information symbols representing an estimate of the source sequence of information symbols.

An apparatus for estimating a source sequence of information symbols from a communications signal received from a communications medium, the communications signal representing a multiplexing of first and second encoded sequences of symbols representing first and second versions of the source sequence of information symbols encoded according to first and second error correction codes, respectively, wherein said first error correction code comprises a random error correction code, and wherein the second error correction code comprises a burst error correction code, combined with noise introduced by the communications medium, the apparatus comprising:

• means for processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received communications symbols;
• demultiplexing means, responsive to said means for processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received symbols, for demultiplexing the sequence of received communications symbols to produce a first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols and a second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols corresponding to the first encoded sequence of symbols and the second encoded sequence of symbols, respectively;
• and
• means, responsive to said demultiplexing means, for decoding the first and second demultiplexed sequences according to the first and second error correction codes to produce an estimated sequence of information symbols representing an estimate of the source sequence of information symbols.

A method of communicating a source sequence of information symbols over a communications medium, the method comprising the steps of:

• encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a first error correction code to produce a first encoded sequence of symbols;
• encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a second error correction code to produce a second encoded sequence of symbols;
• multiplexing the first and second encoded sequences of symbols to produce a sequence of communications symbols;
• processing the sequence of communications symbols to produce a communications signal;
• communicating the communications signal over the communications medium;
• processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received communications symbols;
• demultiplexing the sequence of received communications symbols according to the predetermined multiplexing sequence to produce a first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols and a second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols;
• decoding the first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols according to the first error correction code to produce a first sequence of soft information values;
• decoding the second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols according to the second error correction code to produce a second sequence of soft information values;
• and
• combining the first and second sequences of soft information values to produce an estimated sequence of information symbols representing an estimate of the source sequence of information symbols.

A method of communicating a source sequence of information symbols over a communications medium, the method comprising the steps of:

• encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a first error correction code to produce a first encoded sequence of symbols, wherein said first error correction code comprises a random error correction code;
• encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a second error correction code to produce a second encoded sequence of symbols, wherein said second error correction code comprises a burst error correction code;
• multiplexing the first and second encoded sequences of symbols to produce a sequence of communications symbols;
• processing the sequence of communications symbols to produce a communications signal;
• communicating the communications signal over the communications medium;
• processing the communicated communications signal to produce a sequence of received communications symbols:
• demultiplexing the sequence of received communications symbols according to the predetermined multiplexing sequence to produce a first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols and a second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols;
• and
• decoding the first and second demultiplexed sequences according to the first and second error correction codes to produce an estimated sequence of information symbols representing an estimate of the source sequence of information symbols.

A method of producing a communication signal from a source sequence of information symbols, the method comprising the steps of:

• encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to each of a plurality of codes to produce a plurality of encoded sequences of symbols, a respective one of the plurality of codes producing a respective one of the plurality of encoded sequences of symbols from the source sequence of information symbols without interleaving, wherein said step of encoding comprises the steps of:
• encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a first error correction code to produce a first encoded sequence of symbols without interleaving the source sequence of information symbols, wherein said first error correction code comprises a random error correction code;
• encoding the source sequence of information symbols according to a second error correction code to produce a second encoded sequence of symbols without interleaving the source sequence of information symbols, wherein said second error correction code comprises a burst error correction code;
• combining the plurality of encoded sequences of symbols to produce a sequence of communications symbols, wherein said step of combining the plurality of encoded sequences of symbols comprises the step of multiplexing the first and second encoded sequences of symbols to produce the sequence of communication symbols;
• and
• processing the sequence of communications symbols to produce a communications signal.

A method of estimating a source sequence of information symbols from a communications signal received from a communications medium, the communications signal representing a multiplexing of first and second encoded sequences of symbols representing first and second versions of the source sequence of information symbols encoded according to first and second error correction codes, respectively, combined with noise introduced by the communications medium, the method comprising the steps of:

• processing the received communications signal to produce a sequence of received communications symbols;
• demultiplexing the sequence of received communications symbols to produce a first demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols and a second demultiplexed sequence of communications symbols corresponding to the first encoded sequence of symbols and the second encoded sequence of symbols, respectively;
• and
• decoding the first and second demultiplexed sequences according to the first and second error correction codes to produce an estimated sequence of information symbols representing an estimate of the source sequence of information symbols.