Patent ID: 7930617

Claim:
A method for communicating information symbols in a digital communications system, comprising the steps of: a) dividing a stream of information symbols into a sequence of information segments, each of which contains k symbols, the k symbols in the ith segment being denoted x 0 [i], x 1 [i], . . . , x k−1 [i]; b) generating a set of e parity symbols associated with each information segment, where e is greater than one, where the mth parity symbol in said set associated with the ith segment is generated utilizing the following steps: i. selecting a set of W=kL information symbols {x j [i−j−m−1], x j [i−j−m−1−k], . . . , x j [i−j−m−1−k(L−1)]}, where j=0, 1, . . . , k−1 and W is a defined window length and is a multiple of k and L is positive integer; ii. generating a codeword from said set of information symbols utilizing a systematic block code, where said block code corrects more than one erased symbol; and, iii. selecting the mth parity symbol from said codeword, where said parity symbol is denoted as P m [i−m−1], to be the mth parity symbol associated with the ith information segment; c) assembling each of said information segments and its associated set of parity symbols into a sequence of packets, each of said packets comprising an information segment and its associated set of parity symbols; and, d) transmitting said sequence of packets to at least one receiver.