The present invention pertains to preserving the content of a communication signal corrupted by interference during transmission. Such interference may be caused by intentional jamming or by scintillation from a nuclear source, among other things.
The present invention selectively utilizes interleaver diversity and/or duplication diversity to preserve the content of a communication signal having a plurality of bursts that individually include a plurality of data symbols.
Interleaver diversity is a technique of scheduling transmission of data symbols such that data symbols of different bursts are interleaved with data symbols from other bursts so that the data symbols will be interleaved amongst multiple bursts, whereby the destruction of one or several bursts will appear as random errors to a receiver after deinterleaving and can be received without error following decoding when there is adequate interleaver depth, and acceptable levels of jamming and/or scintillation and duty factor (% of bursts jammed per bursts sent).
Duplication diversity is a technique of transmitting multiple copies of the information contained in a data burst simultaneously by using multiple transmitters and/or repeatedly transmitting the data burst in order to dramatically improve the probability of successful reception of the data symbols within the burst.
The present invention provides a system for processing a communication signal having a plurality of bursts that individually include a plurality of data symbols in order to preserve the content of the signal when the signal is corrupted by interference during transmission of the signal, comprising: means for interleaving data symbols of different individual bursts of said communication signal; means for causing multiple transmissions of the content of said communication signal; and means for controlling operation of the interleaving means and the means for causing multiple transmissions in accordance with data indicating (i) the time sensitivity of the data to be transmitted in the communication signal and (ii) the degree of vulnerability of the communication signal to interference during transmission of said signal.
The present invention also provides a method of processing a communication signal having a plurality of bursts that individually include a plurality of data symbols in order to preserve the content of the signal when the signal is corrupted by interference during transmission of the signal, comprising the steps of:
(a) processing data indicating (i) the time sensitivity of the data to be transmitted in the communication signal, and, (ii) the degree of vulnerability of the communication signal to interference during transmission of said signal; and
(b) in accordance with said indications, effecting either the step of:
(c) interleaving data symbols of different individual bursts of said communication signal; or the step of:
(d) causing multiple transmissions of the content of said communication signal; or both steps (c) and (d).
The present invention additionally provides computer readable storage media, including computer executable program instructions for causing one or more computers to perform and/or enable one or more functions of the respective systems. Additional features of the present invention are described with reference to the detailed description.