A Hybrid Architecture for Delay Analysis of Interleaved FEC on Mobile Platforms

Forward error correction (FEC) is the preferred way of coping with the error-prone nature of wireless links in broadcasting systems, because it can provide a bounded delay, which is a particular consideration for real-time multimedia applications. Additionally, controlling the variability of the delay, or jitter, is important in achieving seamless multimedia services. We show that error control using Reed-Solomon (RS) FEC in the medium-access control (MAC) layer can be a major source of jitter. We predict the expected delay incurred by RS decoding for varying levels of block interleaving in a mobile, under a range of channel conditions, using a hybrid simulation and analytic approach, which is based on the error statistics of data transmission over fading channels. The results allow us to determine the size of the buffer required to avoid frequent service interruptions.