Variable-rate coding for meteor-burst communications

The performance of variable-rate Reed-Solomon error-control coding for meteor-burst communications is considered. The code rate is allowed to vary from codeword to codeword within each packet, and the optimum number of codewords per packet and optimum rates for the codewords are determined as a function of the length of the message and the decay rate for the meteor trail. The resulting performance is compared to that obtained from, fixed-rate coding. Of central importance is the derivation of tractable expressions for the probability of correct decoding for bounded-distance decoding on a memoryless channel with a time-varying symbol error probability. A throughout measure is developed that is based on the probability distribution of the initial signal-to-noise ratio