Digital television systems employing concatenated convolutional coded data

A transmitter apparatus for generating 8VSB digital television (DTV) signals in general accordance with specifications of the ATSC Mobile DTV Standard published by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, but supportive of iterative-diversity reception by receivers that combine the components of iterative-diversity transmissions during decoding procedures, said Standard specifying the transmission of M/H data for mobile/handheld receivers within at least one selected one of 16 Slot intervals in each of five sub-frames of each M/H Frame interval extending over 20 data frames of 8VSB digital television signal, said transmitter apparatus comprising:

• an M/H Frame encoder for separating successive bytes of M/H service multiplex signal for data randomization and subsequent temporary storage in byte storage locations associated with rows of RS Frames within respective ones of a plurality of RS Frame memories within said M/H Frame encoder, for subjecting the successive bytes of data-randomized M/H service multiplex signal temporarily stored within each one of said plurality of RS Frame memories to transversal Reed-Solomon (TRS) coding with the resulting parity bytes temporarily stored in byte storage locations associated with further rows of that said one of said plurality of RS Frame memories, and for subjecting the successive bytes of data-randomized M/H service multiplex signal and TRS parity bytes temporarily stored within each one of said plurality of RS Frame memories to row by row lateral cyclic-redundancy-check coding with the resulting parity bytes for each row appended to the conclusion thereof when each row of bytes within that said one of said plurality of RS Frame memories is read from said M/H Frame encoder, each one of said plurality of RS Frame memories with temporarily stored bytes arranged to have its byte storage locations read at least once before being re-written and selected ones of said plurality of RS Frame memories with temporarily stored bytes arranged to have its byte storage locations read twice before being re-written, each said reading of the byte storage locations of an RS Frame being completed within a single one of said M/H Frame intervals;
• a block processor connected for converting bytes read from temporary storage in said selected ones of said plurality of RS Frame memories to a bit-serial-format signal, for coding said modified bit-serial-format signal in accordance with an outer convolutional code that halves effective code rate to generate first sets of successive two-bit symbols, for ones' complementing the bits of said bit-serial-format signal originating from one of two readings of bytes from said selected ones of said plurality of RS Frame memories to generate a modified bit-serial-format signal, for coding said modified bit-serial-format signal in accordance with said outer convolutional code that halves effective code rate to generate second sets of successive two-bit symbols, for interleaving said two-bit symbols in said first sets thereof to generate respective first sets of interleaved two-bit symbols that are converted to bytes of respective first sets of M/H Blocks, and for interleaving said two-bit symbols in said second sets thereof to generate respective second sets of interleaved two-bit symbols that are converted to bytes of respective second sets of M/H Blocks;
• a signaling encoder for supplying Transport Parameter Channel (TPC) and Fast Information Channel (FIC) signals that are encoded using parallelly concatenated convolutional coding (PCCC);
• a Group formatter connected for receiving said first sets of M/H Blocks and said second sets of M/H Blocks from said block processor, for receiving said TPC and said FIC signals in PCCC form from said signaling encoder, for assembling successive M/H Groups each composed of a plurality of said M/H Blocks selected from one of said first and said second sets of M/H Blocks and a respective sequence of said TPC and said FIC signals encoded using PCCC, and for de-interleaving bytes of said M/H Groups and placeholder bytes for other signals assembled together therewith as they will appear in a modulating signal, said de-interleaving being complementary to convolutional byte interleaving performed further on in said transmitter apparatus, the resulting de-interleaved signal being supplied as a Group formatter response;
• a packet formatter connected for receiving said Group formatter response and generating MPEG-2 transport stream packets responsive to said Group formatter response;
• a packet multiplexer connected for time-division multiplexing MPEG-2 transport stream packets generated by said packet formatter together with MPEG-2 transport stream packets of the main service, thereby generating a combined transport stream of MPEG-2 packets;
• a M/H post processor connected for receiving said combined transport stream of MPEG-2 packets, for data-randomizing said MPEG-2 transport stream packets of the main service, for Reed-Solomon encoding the bytes of said combined transport stream of MPEG-2 packets, for convolutionally interleaving the bytes of the successive resulting Reed-Solomon codewords, and for trellis coding the convolutionally byte-interleaved Reed-Solomon codewords for supplying a trellis-coded output signal in which said bytes of M/H service multiplex signal are encoded as concatenated convolutional coding (CCC);
• modulator apparatus connected for generating said modulating signal responsive to said trellis-coded output signal of said M/H post processor;
• and
• radio-frequency transmission apparatus for transmitting a radio frequency wave with amplitude modulated in accordance with said modulating signal.

A transmitter apparatus for transmitting a radio-frequency signal the amplitude, of which is modulated in accordance with an 8-level modulating signal, said transmitter apparatus comprising:

• a first convolutional encoder for encoding randomized data bits, to supply respective 2-bit symbols each reproducing the randomized data bit accompanied by a respective one of parity bits generated by said first convolutional encoder;
• a symbol interleaver for permuting the order of said 2-bit symbols as supplied from said first convolutional encoder in a response from said symbol interleaver composed of interleaved 2-bit symbols, each successive one of said interleaved 2-bit symbols composed of an interleaved randomized data bit accompanied by a respective interleaved one of said parity bits generated by said first convolutional encoder;
• a second convolutional encoder for encoding said interleaved randomized data bits of said interleaved 2-bit symbols in said response from said symbol interleaver, to supply respective further 2-bit symbols each reproducing a respective one of said interleaved randomized data bits accompanied by a respective one of said parity bits generated by said second convolutional encoder;
• a symbol mapper for said 8-level modulating signal, each of said eight levels being identified by a three-bit digital number, at times of PCCC transmission at one-third code rate the most significant bits of said three-bit digital numbers corresponding to parity bits generated by said first convolutional encoder, at times of PCCC transmission at one-third code rate the least significant bits of said three-bit digital numbers corresponding to parity bits generated by said second convolutional encoder, and at times of PCCC transmission at one-third code rate the bits of intermediate significance within said three-bit digital numbers corresponding to said interleaved randomized data bits reproduced by said second convolutional encoder.

A receiver apparatus for final-component transmissions of concatenated convolutionally coded (CCC) data and for initial-component transmissions of corresponding CCC data, said CCC data and said corresponding CCC data each conveyed within 8-level symbols modulating a carrier wave for iterative-diversity broadcasting, said receiver apparatus comprising:

• apparatus for demodulating said carrier wave and supplying soft decisions concerning said 8-level symbols of said final-component transmissions conveying said CCC data and of any of said preceding initial-component transmissions conveying corresponding CCC data;
• delay memory connected for delaying those of said soft decisions concerning said 8-level symbols conveying said CCC data within any said initial-component transmissions so as to be contemporaneous with those of said soft decisions concerning said 8-level symbols conveying said CCC data within corresponding ones of said final-component transmissions;
• paired first and second turbo decoders of similar construction, said first turbo decoder including a respective first turbo decoding loop and said second turbo decoder including a respective second turbo decoding loop, said first turbo decoder connected for receiving as an input signal thereof said soft decisions concerning said 8-level symbols conveying said CCC data within said final-component transmissions, said second turbo decoder connected for receiving as an input signal thereof said soft decisions concerning said 8-level symbols conveying said CCC data within said initial-component transmissions, as delayed by said delay memory so as to be contemporaneous with those of said soft decisions concerning said 8-level symbols conveying said CCC data within said final-component transmissions;
• and
• an information-exchange unit connected for exchanging information concerning the confidence levels of soft data bits between said respective turbo decoding loops of said paired first and second turbo decoders of similar construction.