Patent ID: 8473826
Filing Date: 2013-06-25
Classification: H03M

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: (a) inputting received code symbols into a hard decision (HD) Reed Solomon (RS) decoding method; (b) decoding the received code symbols with the HD RS decoding method; (c) determining whether a decoding failure occurs; (d) wherein when a decoding failure does not occur, outputting decoded data; (e) wherein when a decoding failure occurs, computing soft decision (SD) reliability information for each code symbol to determine most likely code symbol errors, wherein computing SD reliability information for each code symbol further comprises: computing a single matrix for all possible code symbols at each code symbol location where each matrix element is given by where T is an M-ary signal that represents a transmitted symbol, R is a random variable that models the received code signal, f(r (f) selecting the most likely code symbol errors for each code symbol from the single matrix; (g) inputting the most likely code symbol errors for each code symbol into the HD RS decoding method to generate a revised HD RS decoding method; (h) decoding the received code symbols with the revised HD RS decoding method; (i) determining whether a decoding failure occurs; (j) wherein when a decoding failure does not occur, outputting the decoded data; (k) wherein when a decoding failure occurs, selecting next most likely code symbol errors for each code symbol; (l) inputting the next most likely code symbol errors for each code symbol into the HD RS decoding method to generate a revised HD RS decoding method; and (m) returning to operation (h).