Patent ID: 7773680

Claim:
A three-Dimensional (3D) interleaver for interleaving an input stream in an Orthogonal-Frequency-Division-Multiplexing (OFDM) based Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) system, the 3D interleaver configured to: receive an input bit stream A(k), k=0, 1, 2, . . . , N CBPS ×N I −1, where N CBPS is the number of input bits per OFDM symbol, N I is the number of OFDM symbols per 3D interleaver; select two parameters N row and N column , where N row ×N column =N CBPS ; form a 3D structure, the 3D structure having N I ×N row ×N column empty cells, dimensions of the 3D structure being N I , N row and N column respectively; write each input bit A(k) to each cell of the 3D structure, position of each cell in the 3D structure being defined by three co-ordinates, x, y, and z, where 0≦x≦N column −1, 0≦y≦N I −1, and 0≦z≦N row −1; interleave the input bit stream A(k), k=0, 1, 2, . . . , N CBPS ×N I −1 into N I groups of cells in a 3D structure, each group being associated with one OFDM symbol, wherein consecutive input bits are assigned to different groups of cells to allow for the two consecutive input bits to be transmitted in different OFDM symbols; and output an interleaved bit stream B(j), j=0, 1, 2, . . . , N CBPS ×N I −1, from the 3D structure.