Patent ID: 6865709

Claim:
A method for channel coding in a message transmission system, which comprises: providing an information stream having symbols of different quality classes; supplying the information stream to a plurality of coding branches for coding; for each one of the plurality of the coding branches, using a respective demultiplexer to feed symbols of a respective one of the different quality classes of the information stream into the one of the plurality of the coding branches; providing at least a first one of the plurality of the coding branches with an interleaver for providing error protection for the symbols of at least a first one of the different quality classes; configuring the interleaver after the demultiplexer provided for the first one of the plurality of the coding branches such that the symbols of the first one of the different quality classes are interleaved; in each one of the plurality of the coding branches, coding the symbols of the respective one of the different quality classes to obtain coded symbols, the symbols of the first one of the different quality classes being interleaved before being coded; supplying the coded symbols from each one of the plurality of the coding branches in parallel to a puncturing and multiplexing unit; and setting a predetermined code rate with the puncturing and multiplexing unit.