Patent ID: 6944242
Filing Date: 2005-09-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of generating soft bit outputs from soft symbol decisions for an M-ary symbol alphabet in a communication receiver coupled to a channel wherein said communication receiver includes a first decoder adapted to generate said soft symbol decisions from a received signal, said method comprising the steps of: receiving M soft symbol decisions for each symbol, wherein each symbol is represented by m bits; partitioning said soft symbol decisions into m bit groups, each said bit group comprising a zero-bit portion and a one-bit portion; summing all soft symbol values in the zero-bit portion of a particular bit group of interest, so as to generate a first sum; summing all soft symbol values in the one-bit portion of a particular bit group of interest, so as to generate a second sum; computing a soft bit value for the particular bit of interest as a function of said first sum and said second sum; and wherein m and M are positive integers.