Hybrid-ARQ Reed-Solomon coding in an adaptive rate system

The performance of a channel estimation procedure based on retransmission statistics is examined for a two-state channel. Throughput performance is derived from the ability of the estimation mechanism to determine which of the two states the channel is in at any given moment. The throughput analysis is then used to derive a simple rule for maximizing throughput through careful selection of the code set. The performance of Reed-Solomon codes in type-I hybrid-ARQ protocols is considered. The tradeoff between throughput and reliability is derived for the general case and plotted for several specific examples. An example is presented in which a pair of Reed-Solomon codes is used in an adaptive rate coding system on a two-state channel.<>