Error-resistant data communication using multiple channels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12476735-B2
Application number	US-202418639489-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2024
Priority date	Apr 18, 2024
Publication date	Nov 18, 2025
Grant date	Nov 18, 2025

Abstract

A transmission method comprising: encoding a message into error correction coding blocks, each comprising a different portion of the payload bits of the message and a respective plurality of error correction bits; and applying an interleaving map to error correction coding blocks, such that for each error correction coding block, different bits of the error correction coding block are mapped to different channels, each channel thus being used to transmit bits from a respective selection of multiple of the error correction coding blocks. Thus, for at least one channel failure scenario in which at least one of the plurality of channel fails leaving a plurality of remaining channels, enough bits will remain on the remaining channels to enable correction of the message based on the error correction coding.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method of transmission, the method comprising:
obtaining a message comprising multiple payload bits; encoding the message into a plurality of error correction coding blocks, each error correction coding block comprising a respective block of input bits, each block of input bits comprising a different respective portion of the payload bits of the message and a respective plurality of error correction bits; applying an interleaving map to the plurality of error correction coding blocks, resulting in, for each error correction coding block, each of the input bits of the error correction coding block being mapped to a respective channel group to be transmitted on a respective channel for the respective channel group from among a plurality of channels, the respective channels being different than one another, wherein for each error correction coding block at least some of the input bits of the error correction coding block are mapped to different ones of the channel groups than one another, each channel group thus comprising interleaved bits from a respective selection of multiple of the error correction coding blocks, such that for at least one channel failure scenario in which at least one of the plurality of channel fails leaving a plurality of remaining channels, enough bits will remain on the remaining channels to enable correction of the message; and transmitting each of the channel groups via the respective channel.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein one, more or all of:
each channel group comprises no more than one bit from any given one of the error correction coding blocks; and/or none of the channel groups contains more than E bits from a same one of the error encoding coding blocks, where E is a maximum number of errors that can be corrected per error correction coding block; and/or each channel group comprises bits from (M/E) different ones of the error correction coding blocks, where each channel group is M bits wide.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
( N/D ) B=MC, where the message is N bits wide, each channel group is M bits wide, each encoding block is B bits wide with D payload bits per block, and the plurality of channels is C channels in number; wherein the input bits of the plurality of error correction coding blocks together form a sequence of input bits which are indexed by respective values of an input index x in order from a first bit of a first of the error correction coding blocks to a last bit of a last of the error correction coding blocks; wherein the interleaving map interleaves each value of the input index x in the set of input bits to a respective value of an interleaved index y, and determines an index of the channel group for each interleaved bit as equal to └y/M┘ where └ ┘ is a floor function that rounds down to the nearest integer; and wherein either:

y
=

(

Max
+

⌊

x
B

⌋

)

⁢

%
⁢

(
MC
)

,

where % is a modulo operator and α is an integer constant; or . . .
y=k % ( MC )+└ k /( MC )┘,

where % is a modulo operator,

k
=

M
⁡
(

α
⁢

⌊

x
/
B

⌋

+

x
⁢
%
⁢
α

)

+

M
⁢
β
⁢

⌊

x
⁢
%
⁢
B

α

⌋

,

α is an integer constant and β=αN/D.

4 . The method of claim 1 , comprising dynamically alternating the interleaving map at run time.

5 . The method of claim 1 , comprising detecting that the at least one channel has failed, and in response selecting the interleaving map as a map that enables the correction of the message.

6 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining a candidate bit mapping, either randomly or by selecting from among a plurality of predetermined mappings or by searching using a heuristic algorithm; trialling the candidate bit mapping to check the candidate bit mapping meets a recovery condition, the recovery condition comprising a condition that the candidate bit mapping would enable correction of the message in each of a predetermined set of one or more failure scenarios if used as the interleaving map; and in response to determining based on the trialling that the candidate bit mapping does meets the recovery condition, selecting the candidate bit mapping as the interleaving map.

7 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
detecting a problem channel from among the plurality of channels, wherein the problem channel is either a failed channel or a channel having a bit error rate detected to exceed a threshold; and in response to the detecting of the problem channel, switching the channel group of the problem channel to being transmitted over a back-up channel, the back-up channel being an additional channel in addition to said plurality of channels.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the plurality of channels are implemented on different transmission frequencies than one another.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the plurality of channels are implemented via different units of transmission hardware than one another, and for each of at least one of the units of transmission hardware, the unit of transmission hardware implements multiple of the plurality of channels time-division multiplexed through the unit of transmission hardware; and
wherein the method comprises detecting one of the units of transmission hardware having a failed channel or a channel with an error rate below a threshold, and in response swapping said one of the units of transmission hardware with a back-up unit of transmission hardware.

10 . Non-transitory computer-readable storage comprising a program conf

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Lyutsarev Vasily
• Shi Kai
• Boecker Charles
• Cletheroe Daniel Jonathan Finchley
• Benyahya Kaoutar
• Liu Junyi
• Gomez Diaz Ariel
• Siew Shawn Yohanes
• Costa Paolo

Classifications

• H04L1/0071 Primary

  Use of interleaving (interleaving per se H03M13/27) · CPC title

• H04L1/0057 Primary

  Block codes (H04L1/0061, H04L1/0064 take precedence) · CPC title

• H04L1/0045

  Arrangements at the receiver end · CPC title

• H04L2001/0096

  Channel splitting in point-to-point links · CPC title

• H04L1/0041

  Arrangements at the transmitter end · CPC title