Geo-predictive error correction adaptation for broadcast services

This article presents an error protection method that uses error-condition forecasting. The forecasting procedure uses a-priori acquired knowledge of the Probability-of-Error (PoE), along a route that a mobile client (MC) is expected to traverse. Additional parity data, called Geo-Predictive forward error correcting codes (GP-FEC), is computed over each source block and broadcast before the source block. A mobile client (MC) forecasts the error conditions it could experience in the future, and if needed, fetches and uses GP-FEC. Forecasting and time-diversity due to staggered transmission of GP-FEC, results in improved error robustness. The superior performance of the presented method against conventional broadcasting is verified in simulations using the Digital Video Broadcasting-Handhelds (DVB-H) environment. © 2011 HTE