Burst-error correction methods and apparatuses for wireless digital communications systems

A receiver for radio-frequency carrier waves each modulated in amplitude responsive to a respective succession of 8-level digital symbols, said 8-level digital symbols of said respective succession at selected times conveying concatenated convolutional coding (CCC) of data that have previously been subjected to transverse Reed-Solomon (TRS) forward-error-correction (FEC) coding, said TRS-coded data having been subjected to implied symbol interleaving that preserves the original order of their successive bits within said CCC, said receiver comprising:

• apparatus for recovering soft CCC data descriptive of said 8-level digital symbols from a selected one of said radio-frequency carrier waves, said CCC data composed of triads of soft bits, the two less significant ones of the soft bits of each said triad conveying an inner convolutional coding component of said CCC, and the two more significant ones of the soft bits of each said triad conveying a symbol-interleaved outer convolutional coding component of said CCC, the one of the soft bits of each said triad of intermediate significance used in conveying both said inner convolutional coding component and said symbol-interleaved outer convolutional coding component of said CCC;
• a memory for temporarily storing said triads of soft bits;
• a first soft-input/soft-output (SISO) decoder connected for receiving the two less significant ones of the soft bits of each said triad conveying said inner convolutional coding component of said CCC and decoding said inner convolutional coding component of said CCC to generate a response supplying updates of said soft bits of intermediate significance in said triads as temporarily stored in said memory;
• a symbol de-interleaver having an input port connected for receiving from said memory 2-bit symbols of said symbol-interleaved outer convolutional coding component of said CCC composed of the most significant ones of the soft bits of said triads conveying said inner convolutional coding component of said CCC and corresponding updated ones of the soft bits of intermediate significance in said triads, said symbol de-interleaver connected for supplying from an output port thereof an outer convolutional coding component of said CCC as a symbol de-interleaver response;
• a second soft-input/soft-output (SISO) decoder connected for receiving said symbol de-interleaver response and decoding said outer convolutional coding component of said CCC therein to generate a response from said second SISO decoder that updates said soft bits of said outer convolutional coding component of said CCC;
• an interleaver connected for receiving at an input port thereof at least the less significant soft bits of said second SISO decoder response and for supplying an interleaved response from an output port of said interleaver;
• an extrinsic data processor connected for extracting extrinsic data in response to said interleaved response of said interleaver, said extrinsic data processor connected for supplying said extrinsic data to said first SISO decoder during turbo decoding cycles in a CCC decoding portion of said receiver, said CCC decoding portion of said receiver comprising the foreclaimed elements operable to supply from an output connection point soft decisions regarding said bits of said TRS-coded data in said original order;
• a hard-decision unit connected for receiving said soft decisions regarding said bits of said TRS-coded data from said output connection point in said CCC decoding portion of said receiver, said hard-decision unit further connected for supplying hard decisions regarding said bits of said TRS-coded data;
• and
• decoding apparatus for said TRS FEC coding connected for receiving said hard decisions regarding said bits of said TRS-coded data, said decoding apparatus for said TRS FEC coding decoding said hard decisions regarding bits of said TRS-coded data to generate corrected data for further processing.