Improved Error Correction in Wireless LANs Using Erasures Decoding with Collision Localization

In wireless networks, a major source of packet loss is packet collision. Typically when a collision occurs the entire packet is assumed to be lost. Most wireless networks use some form of forward error correcting code to insulate the packet from noise and interference. Side information in the form of erasures is a common technique for improving the performance of forward error correcting codes. We will propose an algorithm that will locate collided bits within packets, and use this information to improve the performance of forward error correcting codes such as Reed-Solomon and convolutional codes.