System and method for reliable data transmission over fading internet communication channels

The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless electronic communications. In particular, the present invention pertains to a specialized communication technique that supports reliable transmission of compressed video (e.g. MPEG video) over fading Internet communication channels. The present invention relates to a system and method for reliably transmitting Internet Protocol (IP) data packets over fading Internet communication channels. The invented system comprises a transmitting device having an interleaver circuit . The invented system also includes a receiving device having a de-interleaver circuit . The transmitting device and the receiving device communicate over a fading Internet communication channel . The transmitting device applies error control coding to the IP packets before they are transmitted over the fading Internet communication channel . The Interleaver circuit interleaves the IP data packets before transmitting them over the fading Internet channel . The receiving device receives the interleaved IP packets from the fading Internet channel . The de-interleaver circuit de-interleaves the received IP data packets. The receiving device also uses the error control coding to detect and correct any errors incurred during transmission. The interleaving "spreads out" transmission errors over several IP packets and thus makes the error control and correction process more effective and efficient.