A Viterbi algorithm with soft-decision outputs and its applications

The Viterbi algorithm (VA) is modified to deliver the most likely path sequence in a finite-state Markov chain, as well as either the a posteriori probability for each bit or a reliability value. With this reliability indicator the modified VA produces soft decisions to be used in the decoding of outer codes. The inner software output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA) accepts and delivers soft sample values and can be regraded as a device for improving the signal-to-noise ratio, similar to an FM demodulator. Several applications are investigated to show the gain over the conventional hard-deciding VA, including concatenated convolutional codes, concatenation of trellis-coded modulation with convolutional FEC (forward…