Reed-solomon erasure decoding with error detection for retransmission

Abstract

By utilizing Reed-Solomon erasure decoding algorithms and techniques, the system is able to perform error detection for the case where the number of bytes received in error exceeds a correcting capability of a decoder. The error detection can be used, for example, to determine whether a codeword is decodable, and whether the retransmission of data is necessary. The retransmission can be accomplished by assembling a message that is sent to another modem requesting retransmission of one or more portions of data, such as one or more codewords.

1 . A method to determine a decodability of a codeword in a communications environment comprising:
 assigning or obtaining reliability metrics for a plurality of bytes in the codeword;   determining a score for a plurality of codeword decoding solutions based on the reliability metrics;   comparing the score to a correctability threshold; and   determining whether the codeword is decodable.   
     
     
         2 - 43 . (canceled)