Patent ID: 7610543

Claim:
A method for channel encoding data bits for transmission via a wireless communication channel a frame at a time, the method comprising: receiving a each frame consisting of a predetermined number of the data bits, the data bits arranged in order from a beginning to an end of the frame according to subjective importance and grouped into a plurality of predetermined different protection classes including a first class C A and one or more other classes C B , . . . , C Z including a last class C last , the different protection classes having predetermined different desired levels of error protection, the first class C A having the strongest predetermined desired level of error protection, defining dithering for the first class C A and determining whether dithering is to be applied for all other classes C B , . . . , C Z including the last class C last ; encoding the data bits of each frame; determining how many bits to puncture in each protection class so as to achieve the predetermined desired level of error protection for the protection class or, if the desired level of error protection for each class cannot be achieved, then the highest achievable level of error protection closest to the desired level of error protection; and identifying which bits to puncture for each class so as to provide uniform protection for all bits in the first class C A , and so as to provide protection for bits in each other class C B , . . . , C Z that decreases in the same manner as the subjective importance decreases in the class to the end of the class, and for then providing information indicating which bits to puncture and in which order to puncture the bits.