At the coder side, bits of samples of each frame of an input digital
signal are concatenated every digit common to the samples across each
frame to generate equi-order bit sequences, which are output as packets.
At the decoding side, the input equi-order sequences are arranged
inversely to their arrangement at the coder side to reconstruct sample
sequences. When a packet dropout occurs, a missing information
compensating part 430 correct the reconstructed sample sequences in a
manner to reduce an error between the spectral envelope of the
reconstructed sample sequence concerned and a known spectral envelope.