Patent ID: 7145964

Claim:
A system for coding channels in a wireless communication system in which a digital signal is communicated from a transmitting station to a receiving station, comprising: a grouping module for grouping the bits of the input signal into blocks, a size of each block being adjustable according to a predetermined block size parameter; a forward error correction (FEC) module for coding the bits of the blocks, a rate of the FEC code selected such that a number of FEC symbols in a transmitted block remains constant, even if a number of information bits in a block changes; a symbol modulating module for modulating the FEC symbols of the blocks with a predetermined number of bits per symbol, again such that the number of FEC symbols in a transmitted block remains constant; a coding module for channel coding the modulated symbols with a spreading code and a channel code to produce a transmit signal; and a transmission module for transmitting the transmit signal over a wireless communication link.