On the packet lengths of rateless codes

Erasure correcting codes, particularly the codes suitable for reliable multicast over the Internet connections, became increasingly popular for the coding research community lately due to invention of the so called Rateless (or Digital Fountain) codes. Rateless codes are simple and elegant solution to a problem of transmission of information over the (packet) erasure channels. In this paper we give a simulation study of rateless codes, but with a more deeper look at the underlying erasure communication channel. Namely, we extend the models of a simple erasure channels found in a literature with a more realistic assumption that the erasure rates are packet length dependent. We ask ourselves a question of the suitable packet lengths when using Rateless; codes in the particular settings.