Encoding and error correction system for enhanced performance of legacy communications networks

1. A system comprising:

a header stripper configured to strip header data from a plurality of legacy system frames, each of the plurality of legacy system frames (i) being in accordance with a legacy system frame format and (ii) including a header block and a traffic channel block;

a first encoder configured to encode speech data for a plurality of slots of the traffic channel blocks;

a second encoder configured to encode the stripped header data as a frame header;

a combiner configure to combine the frame header and the encoded speech data to generate a frame;

a segmenter to segment the frame into a plurality of segments; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the plurality of segments as traffic channel data in accordance with the legacy system frame format.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first encoder comprises an adaptive multi-rate codec, wherein the adaptive multi-rate codec is configured to encode the speech data.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the adaptive multi-rate codec is configured to select a codec mode based on channel quality.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the adaptive multi-rate codec selects the codec mode by:

at least one of (i) shifting down from a first mode to a second mode within a first class and (ii) shifting down from the first mode to a third mode in a second class upon degradation of a bit error rate; and

at least one of (i) shifting up from the first mode to a fourth mode within the first class and (ii) shifting up from the first mode to a fifth mode of the second class upon improvement of the bit error rate.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the stripped header data comprises channel identification and slow associated control data.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second encoder comprises a convolution encoder configured to encode the stripped header data.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the convolution encoder comprises a ½ convolution encoder.

8. A system comprising:

a header stripper configured to strip headers from a first plurality of slots of data, wherein each of the first plurality of slots of data comprise a header block and a traffic channel block;

a first encoder configured to combine and encode the headers of the first plurality of slots of data to generate a frame header;

a second encoder configured to combine and encode the traffic channel blocks of the first plurality of slots of data to generate data samples;

a third encoder configured to combine and encode the frame header and the data samples to generate an encoded frame;

a segmenter configured to segment the encoded frame into a second plurality of slots of data; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the second plurality of slots of data.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the first plurality of slots of data and the second plurality of slots of data are personal handy phone system slots of data.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the first plurality of slots of data and the second plurality of slots of data are in a legacy system frame format.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the combiner is configured to:

combine the frame header, in-band data, and the data samples to generate a frame; and

encode the frame to generate the encoded frame.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the second encoder includes an adaptive multi-rate encoder.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the third encoder includes a convolutional encoder.