Methods and systems for 2-dimensional forward error correction coding

1. A communication system, comprising:

an encoder configured to:

encode source data; and

output an encoded frame comprising:

a plurality of rows including at least one row component code encoded according to a first error correction code; and

a plurality of columns with at least one of the columns including a column component code encoded according to a second error correction code,

wherein the first and second error correction codes are characterized by different error correcting capabilities, with the row component code capable of achieving a lower bit error rate than the column component code for a given predetermined signal to noise ratio.

2. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the encoder is configured to add at least one extra bit to either the row component code, or the column component code, or both the row component code and the column component code.

3. The communication system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one extra bit comprises an extra redundant bit, an extra parity bit, or any combination thereof.

4. The communication system of claim 2 , wherein the encoder is configured to meet a specified data rate by adding at least one dummy bit to the source data before encoding at least one of the row component code and column component code.

5. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the row component code comprises at least one row in the encoded frame and the column component code comprises a single column in the encoded frame.

6. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the row component code comprises an integer number of rows in the encoded frame.

7. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the row component code comprises a single row in the encoded frame and the column component code comprises a single column in the encoded frame.

8. The communication system of claim 1 , wherein the row component code is configured to achieve higher coding gain or higher error correction capability, or both than the column component code where the row component code and the column component code employ different Bose and Ray-Chaudhuri, and Hocguenghem (BCH) codes.

9. A communication system, comprising:

a decoder configured to output a block of decoded data based on an encoded frame comprising:

a plurality of rows including at least one row component code encoded according to a first error correction code; and

a plurality of columns with at least one of the columns including a column component code encoded according to a second error correction code,

wherein the decoder is configured to perform row decoding without column decoding in a first latency mode and perform both row decoding and column decoding in a second latency mode based on a preset tradeoff between coding gain and processing latency.

10. The communication system of claim 9 , wherein the decoder is configured to perform row decoding only in the first latency mode based on at least one of the following: a channel condition threshold and a coding gain threshold.

11. The communication system of claim 9 , wherein the decoder is configured to remove dummy bits added at an input side of an encoder to meet a specified data rate.

12. The communication system of claim 9 , wherein:

the decoder is further configured to reduce error floor of binary product codes;

when a total number of un-decodable row codes is less than a preset value, the decoder flips all data bits on the cross points between un-decodable row codes and un-decodable column codes and then performs one more phase of column decoding, and

when a total number of un-decodable column codes is less than the preset value, the decoder flips all the data bits on the cross points between un-decodable row codes and un-decodable column codes and then performs one more phase of row decoding.

13. The communication system of claim 12 , wherein the preset value comprises 2t+2 and t represents an error correcting capability of a component code at a next decoding phase.

14. The communication system of claim 9 , wherein the row component code is stronger than the column component code in terms of error correcting capability by employing the first and second error correction codes characterized by different error correcting capabilities.

15. The communication system of claim 9 , wherein the row component code comprises an integer number of rows in the encoded frame.

16. The communication system of claim 9 , wherein the row component code comprises a single row in the encoded frame and the column component code comprises a single column in the encoded frame.

17. A communication method, comprising:

receiving, in a row encoder, a plurality of source data bits and at least one dummy bit to meet a specified data rate;

encoding, by the row encoder, the plurality of source data bits to a plurality of row component codes;

adding first number of extra bits to the plurality of row component codes to generate encoded row component codes;

encoding, by a column encoder, the encoded row component codes to a plurality of column component codes;

adding second number of extra bits to the plurality of column component codes to generate encoded column component codes; and

generating an encoded frame using the plurality of encoded row component codes and the plurality of encoded column component codes,

wherein the row component code and the column component code were encoded, respectively, by first and second error correction codes characterized by different error correcting capabilities, with the row component code capable of achieving a lower bit error rate than the column component code for a given predetermined signal to noise ratio.

18. The communication method of claim 17 , further comprising:

transmitting the encoded frame to a decoder; and

performing, by the decoder, row decoding without column decoding in a first latency mode and both row decoding and column decoding in a second latency mode based on a preset tradeoff between coding gain and processing latency, wherein the second latency mode is characterized by latency higher than in the first latency mode.

19. The communication method of claim 18 , wherein:

the row component code and the column component code comprise a triple error correcting Bose and Ray-Chaudhuri, and Hocquenghem (BCH) code: BCH (t=3);

the row component code comprises only one row in the encoded frame and the column component code comprises only one column in the encoded frame.

20. The communication method of claim 17 , wherein the row component code is stronger than the column component code in terms of error correcting capability by employing the first and second error correction codes characterized by different error correcting capabilities.