Patent ID: 7668224

Claim:
A method of transmitting coded communications over a plurality of signal streams, comprising the steps of: encoding an input datastream with an error correcting code to produce a codeword including information and parity portions, the codeword having a size selected by a sequence of operations comprising: calculating a number of payload bits based on a packet length; calculating a number of available bits required for transmitting a payload packet of the input datastream; selecting a codeword length based on the calculated number of available bits; selecting a number of codewords of the selected codeword length; calculating a number of bits to be shortened from the codewords; and calculating a number of bits to be repeated within each codeword, by determining a number of bits by which the number of available bits exceeds a sum of the number of parity bits in the selected number of codewords of the selected codeword length plus the number of payload bits; the encoding step further comprising: applying the error correcting code to a block of data in the input datastream, to produce an encoded datastream comprised of a sequence of codewords having the selected number of codewords of the selected codeword length as shortened, each codeword including an information portion and a parity portion, with a number of bits of each codeword, corresponding to the number of bits to be repeated, repeated within the codeword; wherein, if the number of bits to be repeated exceeds the number of information and parity bits in a codeword, repeating at least part of at least one codeword in the sequence more than once; after the encoding step, then separating the encoded datastream into a plurality of datastreams; modulating at least one carrier signal to produce each of the plurality of signal streams, with symbols corresponding to an associated encoded datastream; and transmitting the plurality of signal streams over a communications channel.