Method and apparatus for generating a punctured symbol vector for a given information vector

1. A method for operating a transmitter, the method comprising the steps of:

encoding an information vector to produce data symbol vectors P 1 , P 2 , . . . , P R0 ;

interleaving vectors P 1 , . . . , P R0 to produce vectors P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′, wherein each vector P 1 , . . . , P R0 is interleaved separately;

multiplexing vectors P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ to produce vector Q;

adding or removing symbols from Q to form a vector Q′ having a rate that matches an over-the-channel transmission rate, where Q′ comprises symbols from each vector P i ′, i=1, 2, . . . , R 0 ; and

transmitting vector Q′ over-the-channel;

wherein the step of interleaving vectors P 1 , . . . , P R0 comprising the step of using an interleaver for P i which is different from an interleaver used for P j , for interleaving certain i≠j, 1≦i, j≦R 0 .

2. The method of claim 1 wherein vectors P 1 , P 2 , . . . , P R0 are parity vectors, not equal to the information vector.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of interleaving vector P s , 1≦s≦R 0 , comprises the steps of:

writing a vector into an array at addresses from 0 to K minus 1, (K−1), wherein K is a length of the information vector; and

reading interleaved symbols out in a permuted order with an i-th symbol being read from an address AD i (i=0, . . . , K−1) via the following steps:

1) determining sub-block interleaver parameters, M and J;

2) initializing i and j to 0;

3) finding a tentative output address

T j =2 M ( j mod J )+ BRO M ((└ j/J ┘+Δ)mod 2 M ), 0≦Δ≦2 M −1,

where BRO M (y) indicates a symbol-reversed M-symbol value of y, and for sub block s, Δ=┌(s−1)*2 M /R 0 ┐, s=1, . . . , R 0 and

4) having AD i =T j and incrementing i and j by 1 if T j is less than K; otherwise T j is discarded and j is incremented by one;

5) repeating steps 3 and 4 until all interleaver output addresses AD i (i=0, . . . , K−1) are obtained.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein Q=[P 1 ′(1), P 2 ′(1), . . . , P R0 ′(1), P 1 ′(2), P 2 ′(2), . . . , P R0 ′(2), . . . , P 1 ′(K), P 2 ′(K), . . . , P R0 ′(K)], wherein K is a length of the information vector.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein Q=[P 1 ′(1), P 1 ′(2), P 2 ′(1), P 2 ′(2), . . . , P R0 ′(1), P R0 ′(2), P 1 ′(3), P 1 ′(4), P 2 ′(3), P 2 ′(4), . . . , P R0 ′(3), P R0 ′(4), . . . , P 1 ′(K−1), P 1 ′(K), P 2 ′(K−1), P 2 ′(K), . . . , P R0 ′(K−1), P R0 ′(K)], wherein K is a length of the information vector.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

receiving an indication that a first Q′ was improperly received; and

deriving and transmitting a second Q′ from vector Q.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the second Q′ differs from the first Q′.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the second Q′ is a subset of or equal to the first Q′.

9. A method for operating a receiver that estimates an information vector, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a signal vector Q′ over-the-channel, where Q′ comprises symbols from each vector P i ′, i=1, 2, . . . , R 0 ;

adding or removing symbols from Q′ to form a vector Q;

de-multiplexing vector Q to produce a plurality of vectors P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′;

de-interleaving P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ to produce vectors P 1 , . . . , P R0 , wherein each vector P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ is de-interleaved separately; and

decoding P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ to produce the estimated information vector;

wherein the step of de-interleaving vectors P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ comprises the step of using a de-interleaver for P i which is different from an de-interleaver used for de-interleaving P j , for certain i≠j, 1≦i, j≦R 0 .

10. The method of claim 9 wherein symbol vectors P 1 , P 2 , . . . , P R0 are parity vectors, not equal to the information vector.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein Q=[P 1 ′(1), P 2 ′(1), . . . , P R0 ′(1), P 1 ′(2), P 2 ′(2), . . . , P R0 ′(2), . . . , P 1 ′(K), P 2 ′(K), . . . , P R0 ′(K)], wherein K is a length of the estimated information vector.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising the steps of:

sending an indication that a first vector Q′ was improperly received; and

requesting from a transmitter a second vector Q′ also derived from vector Q.

13. An apparatus comprising:

an encoder encoding an information vector to produce data symbol vectors P 1 , P 2 , . . . , P R0 ;

at least one interleaver for interleaving vectors P 1 , . . . , P R0 to produce vectors P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′, wherein each vector P 1 , . . . , P R0 is interleaved separately;

a multiplexer multiplexing vectors P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ to produce vector Q;

a symbol adder/remover adding or removing symbols from Q to form a vector Q′ having a rate that matches an over-the-channel transmission rate, where Q′ comprises symbols from each vector P i ′, i=1, 2, . . . , R 0 ; and

a transmitter transmitting vector Q′ over-the-channel;

wherein the at least one interleaver comprises an interleaver used for interleaving P i which is different from the interleaver used for interleaving P j , for certain i≠j, 1≦i, j≦R 0 .

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein Q=[P 1 ′(1), P 2 ′(1), . . . , P R0 ′(1), P 1 ′(2), P 2 ′(2), . . . , P R0 ′(2), . . . , P 1 ′(K), P 2 ′(K), . . . , P R0 ′(K)], wherein K is a length of the information vector.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver receiving vector Q′ over-the-channel, where Q′ comprises symbols from each vector P i ′, i=1, 2, . . . , R 0 ;

a symbol adder/remover adding or removing symbols from Q′ to form a vector Q;

a de-multiplexer de-multiplexing vector Q to produce a plurality of vectors P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′;

at least one de-interleaver de-interleaving P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ to produce vectors P 1 , . . . , P R0 , wherein each vector P 1 ′, P 2 ′, . . . , P R0 ′ is de-interleaved separately; and

a decoder decoding P 1 , P 2 , . . . , P R0 to produce an estimated information vector;

wherein the at least one de-interleaver comprises a de-interleaver used for interleaving P i which is different from the interleaving used for interleaving P j , for certain i≠j, 1≦i, j≦R 0 .

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein Q=[P 1 ′(1), P 2 ′(1), . . . , P R0 ′(1), P 1 ′(2), P 2 ′(2), . . . , P R0 ′(2), . . . , P 1 ′(K), P 2 ′(K), . . . , P R0 ′(K)], wherein K is a length of the estimated information vector.