Patent ID: 8413012

Claim:
A transmitter of a radio-frequency carrier wave modulated in amplitude responsive to 8-level digital symbols, which said 8-level digital symbols at selected times convey concatenated convolutional coding (CCC) of data that have previously been subjected to transverse Reed-Solomon (TRS) forward-error-correction (FEC) coding, said transmitter comprising: apparatus for generating successive bytes of TRS FEC coded data; an encoder connected for coding said successive bytes of said TRS-coded data with an error-locating code for the TRS FEC codewords, thereby generating a succession of codewords of said error-locating code; a de-interleaver connected for de-interleaving successive bits of said succession of said codewords of said error-locating code as converted to serial-bit format, thereby to generate a de-interleaver response in serial-bit format; an outer encoder connected for generating redundant outer convolutional coding of said de-interleaver response at one-half code rate; an interleaver connected for interleaving successive bit-pairs of said redundant outer convolutional coding, thereby to generate successive bit-pairs of an interleaver response wherein said successive bits of said succession of said codewords of said error-locating code as converted to serial-bit format are provided implied interleaving that preserves their original order; apparatus for time-division multiplexing said interleaver response with other digital signals to generate a time-division multiplex response; an inner encoder connected for generating redundant inner convolutional coding of said time-division multiplex response at two-thirds code rate; and symbol mapping apparatus connected for mapping said redundant inner convolutional coding to said 8-level digital symbols for modulating said radio-frequency carrier wave in amplitude.