Low delay burst erasure correction codes

In a variety of networks, packet losses occur in bursts. Conventional application of error correction codes for packet recovery often requires interleaving and long decoder delays. These long delays are usually unacceptable in real-time multimedia communication applications such as voice over IP (VoIP). Consequently, erasure correction codes with severe limits on delay are desirable. We present various codes suitable for correcting bursts of lost packets. In addition, we show that these codes have the shortest possible decoding delay. To demonstrate the practical benefits of these codes for VoIP, we present results of informal mean opinion score listening tests conducted with various codes.