Multi-media broadcast and multicast service (MBMS) in a wireless communications system

In a wireless communication system, a method for processing data for transmission to a plurality of terminals, comprising:

• providing a plurality of frames of information bits to a buffer implementing a matrix, wherein the frames may have variable rates and each frame may include a particular number of information bits that is different from those of other frames provided to the matrix;
• padding the matrix with padding bits based on a particular padding scheme;
• and
• coding the plurality of frames of information bits based on a particular code to provide a plurality of parity bits, and wherein the frames of information bits and the parity bits are transmitted to the plurality of terminals;
• wherein one frame is provided to each row of the matrix, and wherein an unused portion of each row is padded with padding bits;
• wherein each row of the matrix has a size M corresponding to less than a maximum number of information bits expected to be received for a frame.