Method and apparatus for concatenated channel coding with variable code rate and coding gain in a data transmission system

1. A method of concatenated channel decoding of data at a receiver, comprising:

(a) decoding soft-channel symbols using a parity-check to generate a plurality of m decoded data symbols according to an (m+1, m) parity-check code; and

(b) decoding the plurality of m decoded bits according to an (N, K) Reed-Solomon (RS) code over GF(2 m ) to provide said data, wherein N comprises a length, measured in symbols of the RS code, and K comprises a message length measured in symbols.

2. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 1 , wherein said parity-check code comprises a minimum Hamming distance d min equal to 2.

3. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 1 , wherein said decoding said soft-channel symbols comprises decoding said symbols according to a maximum likelihood soft decision parity-check decoding scheme.

4. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 3 , wherein said decoding the plurality of m decoded bits according said RS code further comprises decoding said plurality of m bits according to an error-only Reed-Solomon coding scheme.

5. The method of concatenated decoding according to claim 3 , wherein said decoding the plurality of m decoded bits according said RS code further comprises decoding said plurality of m bits according to art error and erasure Reed-Solomon coding scheme.

6. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 1 , wherein said decoding soft-channel symbols further comprises soft-decision Viterbi decoding said soft-channel symbols.

7. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 6 , wherein said Viterbi decoding comprises two-state Viterbi decoding.

8. The method of concatenated channel decoding as defined in claim 6 , wherein said Viterbi decoding is performed by a plurality of parallel soft decision Viterbi decoders.

9. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 1 , and further comprising:

(1) correlating a received vector of length m with a plurality of code words; and

(2) generating a code word selected from the plurality of code words.

10. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 9 , wherein the plurality of code words comprises 2 m code words.

11. The method of concatenated channel decoding according to claim 1 , wherein said data is mapped according to a QAM 16 constellation.

12. A system comprising:

a plurality of customer premises equipment (CPE) stations, the CPE stations comprising a radio frequency transmitter to transmit a signal comprising data; and one or more base stations comprising:

a radio frequency receiver to receive said signal;

an outer code decoder to decode said received signal to provide a plurality of m decoded data symbols according to an (m+1, m) parity-check code; and

an inner code decoder to obtain said data from said plurality of m decoded bits according to an (N,K) Reed-Solomon (RS) code over GF(2 m ) to provide said data, wherein N comprises a length, measured in symbols of the RS code, and K comprises a message length measured in symbols.

13. A system comprising:

one or more base stations comprising a radio frequency transmitter to transmit a signal comprising data; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (CPE) stations, at least one of said plurality of CPE stations comprising:

a radio frequency receiver to receive said signal; an outer code decoder to decode said received signal to provide a plurality of m decoded data symbols according to an (m+1, m) parity-check code; and

an inner code decoder to obtain said data from said plurality of m decoded bits according to an (N,K) Reed-Solomon (RS) code over GF(2 m ) to provide said data, wherein N comprises a length, measured in symbols of the RS code, and K comprises a message length measured in symbols.

14. An apparatus comprising:

means for decoding soft-channel symbols using a parity-check to generate a plurality of m decoded data symbols according to an (m+1, m) parity-check code; and

means for decoding the plurality of m decoded bits according to an (N,K) Reed-Solomon (RS) code over GF(2 m ) to provide said data, wherein N comprises a length, measured in symbols of the RS code, and K comprises a message length measured in symbols.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein said parity-check code comprises a minimum Hamming distance d min equal to 2.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein said means for decoding said soft-channel symbols comprises means for decoding said symbols according to a maximum likelihood soft decision parity-check decoding scheme.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 ; wherein said means for decoding the plurality of m decoded bits according said RS code further comprises means for decoding said plurality of m bits according to an error-only Reed-Solomon coding scheme.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein said means for decoding the plurality of m decoded bits according said RS code further comprises means for decoding said plurality of m bits according to an error and erasure Reed-Solomon coding scheme.

19. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein said means for decoding soft channel symbols further comprises means for soft-decision Viterbi decoding said soft channel symbols.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein said means for Viterbi decoding comprises means for two-state Viterbi decoding.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein said means for Viterbi decoding comprises a plurality of parallel soft-decision Viterbi decoders.

22. The apparatus of claim 14 , and further comprising:

means for correlating a received vector of length m with a plurality of code words; and

means for generating a code word selected from the plurality of code words.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the plurality of code words comprises 2 m code words.

24. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein said data is mapped according to a QAM 16 constellation.