Software enhanced error correction mechanism in a data communication system

Data communication system for transmitting data codewords of n bytes length over a communication channel (20) from a transmitter (10) to a receiver (24), said transmitter comprising a hardware encoder (12) capable of receiving as input an information sequence of n−2t bytes and emitting as output a codeword of n bytes including n−2t information bytes and 2t redundant bytes, and said receiver comprising a hardware decoder (28) capable of detecting up to 2t byte-errors and correcting up to t byte errors;

• Said data communication system being characterized in that:
• said transmitter further comprises a software encoder (14) transforming, in combination with said hardware encoder, an information sequence of n−2s bytes with t<s≦2t into a modified sequence, said transmitter emitting encoded codewords including n−2s information bytes and 2s redundant bytes, and
• said receiver further comprises a software decoder (34) for correcting up to s byte-errors when said hardware decoder has detected errors in the encoded codeword received from said communication channel.