Broadcast Signaling for Priority-Aware AL-FEC Recovery

The patent applies local quality by differentiating the treatment of source symbols based on their priority levels. High-priority source symbols are selected first for repair symbol generation, while low-priority symbols are selected later. This creates non-uniform (local) quality in the error correction process, where different symbols receive different levels of protection based on their importance, thereby improving data recovery efficiency without requiring complete system redesign.

The patent changes the parameter of symbol selection criteria from uniform random selection to priority-based selection. By introducing priority levels as a new parameter and changing the selection process to favor high-priority symbols, the system improves recovery efficiency. The selection process dynamically adjusts which symbols are protected first, transforming the static general AL-FEC approach into an adaptive priority-aware system.

The patent applies preliminary action by performing priority-based rearrangement of source symbols before the actual FEC encoding process. The transmitter pre-sorts source symbols into high-priority and low-priority groups and arranges them in a specific order within the source symbol block. This preliminary organization ensures that when repair symbols are generated, high-priority symbols are protected first, improving recovery efficiency without adding complexity during the decoding phase at the receiver.

The rearrangement process creates local quality differentiation within the source symbol block by positioning high-priority symbols in specific locations (e.g., earlier positions) and low-priority symbols in other positions. This spatial differentiation within the block structure allows the FEC code to naturally provide different levels of protection based on position, improving recovery efficiency while using the existing code structure without major modifications.