Error-correcting two-dimensional modulation codes

Digital magnetic recording/playback systems usually require both runlength-limited (RLL) coding and error correction coding (ECC), and these two steps have typically been performed independently, although various methods of combining them have recently appeared. The recent development of two-dimensional modulation codes, which meet runlength constraints using several parallel recording tracks, has significantly increased the capacity of such channels. In this paper, we apply single-track coding ideas to these two-dimensional constraints, and exploit the increased capacity to achieve good error-correcting quality at the same rate as common non-error-correcting one-dimensional codes