| CPC H03M 13/21 (2013.01) [H03M 13/611 (2013.01); H04L 1/0057 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims | 

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               1. A length-adaptive encoding method for use in a communication system, the method comprising: 
            receiving length-adapter input parameters and generating length-adapter output parameters, wherein the length-adapter input parameters comprise a data word length A and a length-adapted codeword length E, wherein the length-adapter output parameters comprise a primary data word length AP, a secondary data word length AS, a primary codeword length EP, and a secondary codeword length ES, wherein the data word length A and the length-adapted codeword length E are positive integers, wherein the length-adapter output parameters satisfy either a first set of the conditions or a second set of conditions, wherein the first set of conditions comprise AP, ≥A/2, AS>0, AP+AS=A, 0<EP≤E, 0<ES≤E, and EP+ES>E, and the second set of conditions comprise AP=A, AS=0, EP=E, and ES=0, wherein the first set of conditions are satisfied for a non-empty collection of the length-adapter input parameters; 
                receiving a data word and splitting the data word in accordance with splitter parameters into a primary data word and a secondary data word, wherein the splitter parameters comprise the primary data word length AP and the secondary data word length AS; 
                encoding the primary data word in accordance with primary encoder parameters to generate a primary codeword from a primary code, wherein the primary encoder parameters comprise the primary data word length A, and the primary codeword length EP; 
                encoding the secondary data word in accordance with secondary encoder parameters to generate a secondary codeword from a secondary code, wherein the secondary encoder parameters comprise the secondary data word length AS and the secondary codeword length ES; 
                combining the primary codeword and the secondary codeword in accordance with combiner parameters to generate a length-adapted codeword and transmitting the length-adapted codeword via a channel to a decoder in the communication system, wherein the combiner parameters comprise the primary codeword length EP, the secondary codeword length ES, and the length-adapted codeword length E. 
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