Decoding symbols representing digital words

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for decoding symbols each representing a digital word including a turbo encoded bit, a parity bit and at least one uncoded bit. A first soft metric generator produces a soft metric of the encoded bit in each symbol and one or more second soft metric generators generate a soft metric of the or each uncoded bit in each symbol. A turbo decoder decodes the soft metric of the encoder bit so as to produce a hard value and a soft estimate of the encoded bit. A turbo encoder encode the hard value of the encoded bit to produce a reconstruction of the encoded bit and two parity bits. A puncture module punctures the parity bits once. One or more hard decision modules produce a hard decision for the or each uncoded bit of each symbol.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.