Optimal choice of Reed-Solomon codes to protect against queuing losses in wireless networks

Abstract

This article proposes algorithms to determine an optimal choice of the Reed-Solomon forward error correction (FEC) code parameters ( n,k) to mitigate the effects of packet loss on multimedia traffic caused by buffer overflow at a wireless base station. A network model is developed that takes into account traffic arrival rates, channel loss characteristics, the capacity of the buffer at the base station, and FEC parameters. For Poisson distributed traffic, the theory of recurrent linear equations is applied to develop a new closed form solution of low complexity of the Markov model for the buffer occupancy. For constant bit rate (CBR) traffic, an iterative procedure is developed to compute the packet loss probabilities after FEC recovery.