Blind detection of interleaver parameters for non-binary coded data streams

Interleaving, which is commonly used to combat bursts of errors, is an important technique in digital communications systems. The blind detection of interleaving parameters has been studied by many researchers for forward-error-correction (FEC) encoded binary data streams. In this paper, we use finite field Gauss elimination with pivoting to blindly estimate interleaving period of non-binary data streams. To be specific, the data streams are encoded by Reed Solomon codes. Suppose the percentage of zeros in each column of the analytical matrix block is denoted as φ₀. Numerical results show that both the variance and the mean of φ₀ can be used as the evaluation parameter to detect the interleaving parameters. However, the former approach provides a 1-dB gain over the latter.