Reed-Solomon feasibility in mobile transport

Abstract

Forward error corrections have taken much attention lately due the invention of the patented LT- and Raptor-codes. With these new class of forward error corrections, it is possible to encode and decode data in linear running time. Reed-Solomon however is relatively slow to calculate both on the encoding and decoding side. But Reed-Solomon has it's own benefits: it's free of patents, several implementations exists and it does not need more redundant data than the erasure percentage, so it performs optimally when we consider network usage. In this paper we evaluate the Reed-Solomon algorithm usage for mobile device transport protocols. Paper presents comprehensive analysis of speed and energy consumption of the Reed-Solomon in mobile device. There is also analysis of memory usage and algorithm requirements for the protocol. Our results shows that it is possible to use Reed-Solomon scheme as a transport layer erasure correction even on mobile phones without special-purpose hardware.