Error control coding for transmission equipment protection

Abstract

Error control coding is applied to data streams transmitted through transmission equipment such as a telecommunications switch having a distributed synchronous switch fabric. Each k-symbol dataword is encoded to generate an n-symbol codeword that is then sliced for transmission through the transmission equipment. After routing, error-correction decoding is applied to the resulting routed n-symbol codeword to detect and correct one or more errors in the codeword to generate a k-symbol routed dataword that is identical to the original incoming dataword. Depending on the coding scheme, different types and numbers of errors can be corrected in each codeword. For example, for Reed-Solomon [12, 8, 5] coding with Galois field (2 ), corrections can be made for up to four erasures with no random errors, up to two erasures and one; random error, or up to two random errors with no erasures. In this way, error-less fault tolerance can be provided that ensures the accuracy of transmission processing in the event of certain combinations of errors. Preferred embodiments involve temporal sharing of components (for more cost effective implementations) and shuffling of data (to increase error-correction coverage).