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Apparatus and systems, as well as methods and articles, encode a data word into an unequal error protection (UEP) codeword and transmit first and second portions of the UEP codeword associated with first and second protection levels across first and second sub-channel subsets associated with first a

Apparatus and systems, as well as methods and articles, encode a data word into an unequal error protection (UEP) codeword and transmit first and second portions of the UEP codeword associated with first and second protection levels across first and second sub-channel subsets associated with first and second error probabilities and a multi-channel communications link, respectively.

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What is claimed is: 1. An apparatus, including: a first encoder to encode a data word at a first code distance within a selected bit constellation utilizing a first unequal error protection (UEP) code to yield a first portion of a UEP codeword to be transmitted across a first channel subset of a mu

What is claimed is: 1. An apparatus, including: a first encoder to encode a data word at a first code distance within a selected bit constellation utilizing a first unequal error protection (UEP) code to yield a first portion of a UEP codeword to be transmitted across a first channel subset of a multi-channel communications link, wherein the first channel subset is associated with a first channel reliability; and a second encoder to encode the data word at a second code distance utilizing a second UEP code to yield a second portion of the UEP codeword to be transmitted across a second channel subset of the multi-channel communications link, wherein the second channel subset is associated with a second channel reliability, the first code distance differs from the second code distance, the first channel reliability differs from the second channel reliability, and at least one of the first UEP code and the second UEP code comprises a low-density parity-check code. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, further including: a first decoder to decode a received first portion of the UEP codeword, received on the first channel subset of the multi-channel communications link; and a second decoder to decode a received second portion of the UEP codeword, received on the second channel subset of the multi-channel communications link. 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first decoder and the second decoder comprise bit-loading decoders. 4. An apparatus, including: a first encoder to encode a data word at a first code distance within a selected bit constellation utilizing a first unequal error protection (UEP) code to yield a first portion of a UEP codeword to be transmitted across a first channel subset of a multi-channel communications link, wherein the first channel subset is associated with a first channel reliability; and a second encoder to encode the data word at a second code distance utilizing a second UEP code to yield a second portion of the UEP codeword to be transmitted across a second channel subset of the multi-channel communications link, wherein the second channel subset is associated with a second channel reliability, the first code distance differs from the second code distance, and the first channel reliability differs from the second channel reliability, wherein the absolute value of the difference between the first code distance and the second code distance varies inversely with the absolute value of the difference between the first channel reliability and the second channel reliability. 5. The apparatus of claim 4, further including: a first decoder to decode a received first portion of the UEP codeword, received on the first channel subset to obtain a first estimated first decoded vector component; a first compensation module to compensate a received second portion of the UEP codeword, received on the second channel subset, the received second portion compensated using the first portion; a second decoder coupled to the first compensation module to decode an output of the first compensation module to obtain a second decoded vector component; a second compensation module coupled to an output of the second decoder to compensate the second portion of the received UEP codeword, received on the second channel subset using the second decoded vector component; a third decoder coupled to the second compensation module to decode an output of the second compensation module to obtain a second estimated first decoded vector component; and a list decoder coupled to an output of the third decoder and to an output of the first decoder to perform a list decode operation on the first estimated first decoded vector component and on the second estimated first decoded vector component to obtain a first decoded vector component. 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein at least one of the first decoder, the second decoder, and the third decoder comprises a low-density parity-check decoder. 7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the list decoder comprises at least one of a belief propagation decoder, a min-sum decoder, a Bahl-Cocke-Jelinek-Raviv (BCJR) decoder, and a soft-output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA) decoder. 8. A system, including: a first encoder to encode a data word at a first code distance within a selected bit constellation utilizing a first unequal error protection (UEP) code to yield a first portion of a UEP codeword to be transmitted across a first channel subset of a multi-channel communications link, wherein the first channel subset is associated with a first channel reliability; a second encoder to encode the data word at a second code distance utilizing a second UEP code to yield a second portion of the UEP codeword to be transmitted across a second channel subset of the multi-channel communications link, wherein the second channel subset is associated with a second channel reliability, the first code distance differs from the second code distance, the first channel reliability differs from the second channel reliability, and at least one of the first UEP code and the second UEP code comprises a low-density parity-check code; and a first omnidirectional antenna coupled to the first encoder and to the second encoder. 9. The system of claim 8, further including: a first decoder to decode a received first portion of the UEP codeword, received on the first channel subset of the multi-channel communications link; a second decoder to decode a received second portion of the UEP codeword, received on the second channel subset of the multi-channel communications link; and a second omnidirectional antenna coupled to the first decoder and to the second decoder. 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first channel subset and the second channel subset comprise communications channels defined according to at least one of an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, an IEEE 802.15 specification, an IEEE 802.16 specification, and a discrete multi-tone (DMT) transmission scheme. 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-channel communications link comprises at least one of an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) link and a discrete multi-tone link. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the OFDM link is designed to operate according to at least one of an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, an IEEE 802.15 specification, and an IEEE 802.16 specification. 13. A system, including: a first encoder to encode a data word at a first code distance within a selected bit constellation utilizing a first unequal error protection (UEP) code to yield a first portion of a UEP codeword to be transmitted across a first channel subset of a multi-channel communications link, wherein the first channel subset is associated with a first channel reliability; a second encoder to encode the data word at a second code distance utilizing a second UEP code to yield a second portion of the UEP codeword to be transmitted across a second channel subset of the multi-channel communications link, wherein the second channel subset is associated with a second channel reliability, the first code distance differs from the second code distance, the first channel reliability differs from the second channel reliability; a first omnidirectional antenna coupled to the first encoder and to the second encoder; a first decoder to decode a received first portion of the UEP codeword, received on the first channel subset of the multi-channel communications link; a second decoder to decode a received second portion of the UEP codeword, received on the second channel subset of the multi-channel communications link; and a second omnidirectional antenna coupled to the first decoder and to the second decoder, wherein the absolute value of the difference between the first code distance and the second code distance varies inversely with the absolute value of the difference between the first channel reliability and the second channel reliability. 14. A method including substantially equalizing sub-channel transfer coefficients by: encoding a data word into an unequal error protection (UEP) codeword; transmitting a first portion of the UEP codeword associated with a first protection level across a first sub-channel subset associated with a first error probability and with a multi-channel communications link; transmitting a second portion of the UEP codeword associated with a second protection level across a second sub-channel subset associated with a second error probability and with the multi-channel communications link; receiving a received first portion of the UEP codeword on the first sub-channel subset; and receiving a received second portion of the UEP codeword on the second sub-channel subset, wherein a reliability associated with at least one of the first sub-channel subset and the second sub-channel subset is inversely proportional to a level of forward error correction protection associated with a portion of the UEP codeword. 15. The method of claim 14, further including: decoding the received first portion of the UEP codeword to obtain a first estimated first decoded vector component; extracting a second decoded vector component by compensating the received second portion of the UEP codeword using the received first portion and by decoding a result of the compensation; extracting a second estimated first decoded vector component by compensating the received second portion of the UEP codeword using the second decoded vector component and by decoding a result of the compensation; and performing a further decode operation on the first estimated first decoded vector component and on the second estimated first decoded vector component to obtain a first decoded vector component. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein a bit associated with at least one of the received first portion of the UEP codeword and the received second portion of the UEP codeword comprises a soft bit. 17. The method of claim 14, wherein the first protection level is proportional to a first code distance associated with at least one parity-check matrix column corresponding to the first portion of the UEP codeword, and wherein the second protection level is proportional to a second code distance associated with at least one parity-check matrix column corresponding to the second portion of the UEP codeword. 18. The method of claim 14, wherein the absolute value of the difference between the first protection level and the second protection level varies directly with the absolute value of the difference between the first error probability and the second error probability. 19. The method of claim 14, wherein the UEP codeword is encoded utilizing a plurality of UEP codes. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the plurality of UEP codes comprises at least one low-density parity-check (LDPC) code. 21. An article including a machine-accessible medium having associated information, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing: encoding a data word into an unequal error protection (UEP) codeword utilizing a plurality of UEP codes, wherein the plurality of UEP codes comprises at least one low-density parity-check (LDPC) code; transmitting a first portion of the UEP codeword associated with a first protection level across a first sub-channel subset associated with a first error probability and with a multi-channel communications link; and transmitting a second portion of the UEP codeword associated with a second protection level across a second sub-channel subset associated with a second error probability and with the multi-channel communications link. 22. The article of claim 21, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing: receiving soft bits associated with a portion of the UEP codeword. 23. The article of claim 21, wherein at least one of the first sub-channel subset and the second sub-channel subset comprises communication channels defined according to at least one of an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specification, an IEEE 802.15 specification, an IEEE 802.16 specification, and a discrete multi-tone (DMT) transmission scheme.