System and method for mitigating burst noise in a communications system

• US 9,350,491 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2014
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Johnson, Thomas L., Currivan, Bruce J., Kolze, Thomas J., Howard, Daniel H., Quigley, Thomas J., Seshadri, Nambi, Cummings, Scott, Harrell, James, Bunn, Fred, Danzig, Joel, Hughey, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Alphonse, Fritz
• Application Number:
  US14/194,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20140181611A1
• Time in Patent Office: 813 Days
• Field of Search: 714/774, 714/776, 714/777, 714/755
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/09 Error detection only, e.g. using cyclic redundancy check [CRC] codes or single parity bit
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/098 using single parity bit
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/1515 Reed-Solomon codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/19 Single error correction without using particular properties of the cyclic codes, e.g. Hamming codes, extended or generalised Hamming codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/2707 Simple row-column interleaver, i.e. pure block interleaving
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/2915 with an error detection code in one dimension
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0065 Serial concatenated codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/08 by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/16 in which the return channel carries supervisory signals, e.g. repetition request signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1877 for semi-reliable protocols, e.g. for less sensitive applications like streaming video buffer level management for video bitstream control arrangements H04N21/44004

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product is provided for mitigating the effects of burst noise on packets transmitted in a communications system. A transmitting device applies an outer code, which may include, for example, a block code, an exclusive OR (XOR) code, or a repetition code, to one or more packets prior to adaptation of the packets for transmission over the physical (PHY) layer of the communications system, wherein the PHY layer adaptation may include FEC encoding of individual packets. The outer coded packets are then separately transmitted over a channel of the communications system. A receiving device receives the outer coded packets, performs PHY level demodulation and optional FEC decoding of the packets, and then applies outer code decoding to the outer coded packets in order to restore packets that were erased during transmission due to burst noise or other impairments on the channel.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a packet using a processing device;

identifying, using the processing device, a portion of the packet that contains an error;

requesting, using the processing device, a retransmission of the portion of the packet;

receiving, using the processing device, a retransmitted portion of the packet;

determining, using the processing device, whether the retransmitted portion of the packet contains the error or a second error; and

requesting, using the processing device, a second retransmission of the portion of the packet using a repetition coding technique if the retransmitted portion of the packet contains the error or the second error.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a second portion of the packet that does not contain the error.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the packet comprises a Forward Error Correction (FEC) block of the packet.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the retransmitted portion of the packet contains the error or the second error, modifying a signaling parameter for the second retransmission of the portion of the packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting the second retransmission of the portion of the packet further comprises:

requesting the portion of the packet be transmitted a plurality of times in the second retransmission of the packet.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the error is uncorrectable.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether the error is uncorrectable comprises:

determining whether the error is in a burst preamble of the packet.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether the error is uncorrectable comprises:

determining whether the error cannot be corrected using a Forward Error Correction (FEC) technique.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

discarding the packet if the error is uncorrectable.

10. A device, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a packet; and

a processing device configured to;

determine whether the packet contains an error,

identify a portion of the packet that contains the error,

request a retransmission of the portion of the packet using a repetition coding technique if the portion of the packet contains the error, and

receive a retransmitted portion of the packet.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the packet comprises a plurality of transmission segments including an information segment and a parity segment.

12. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

a media access control (MAC) configured to decode transmission segments of the plurality of transmission segments that do not contain the error in accordance with an error correcting code to correct the error.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the MAC is further configured to:

reconstruct, the packet from the plurality of transmission segments.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the device is a cable modem termination system (CMTS).

15. The device of claim 11, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

request the portion of the packet be repeated in the retransmission of the packet.

16. The device of claim 11, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

determine whether the error is uncorrectable.

17. A device, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a packet; and

a processing device configured to;

determine whether the packet contains an error,

identify a portion of the packet that contains the error,

request a retransmission of the portion of the packet using a repetition coding technique if the portion of the packet contains the error,

receive a retransmitted portion of the packet,

determine whether the retransmitted portion of the packet contains the error or a second error,

modify a signaling parameter for a second retransmission of the portion of the packet when the retransmitted portion of the packet contains the error or the second error, and

request the second retransmission of the portion of the packet using the repetition coding technique if the retransmitted portion of the packet contains the error or the second error.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the portion of the packet comprises a Forward Error Correction (FEC) block of the packet.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

request the portion of the packet be transmitted a plurality of times in the second retransmission of the packet.

20. The device of claim 17, wherein the processing device is configured to:

determine whether the error is in a burst preamble of the packet.