Importance

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Abstract

A method is disclosed for providing packet error indication in a multi-hop communications system in which packets of data are transmitted from a transmission site to a reception site via a plurality of successive physical links. According to the method, at the transmission site, a pre-defined bit in a packet to be transmitted is set to a first value, the first value indicating that no errors are present in the packet. Then, at each successive physical link in the communication system, after transmission of the packet over that physical link, the following steps are performed: (a) detecting whether any uncorrectable errors occurred in the packet during transmission over that physical link; (b) if an uncorrectable error is detected, setting the pre-defined bit in the packet to a second value wherein the second value is indicative of an uncorrectable error in the data of the packet; and (c) relaying the packet to the next successive physical link for transmission over that next link. A decoder at the reception site may, upon receiving a given packet, examine the value of the pre-defined bit to determined the integrity of the data contained in that packet.

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First Claim