Patent ID: 7277496

Claim:
A method comprising: calculating a plurality of format metric values based on a coding rate for a plurality of calculated Viterbi metric values; comparing the calculated format metrics; based on the comparison, determining a probable transmitted format for a transmitted block from the set of possible formats; calculating a format metric for a possible bit value using a function: FormatMetric = ViterbiMetric 2 2 ⁢ σ 2 ⁢ ⁢ N - N ⁢ ⁢ ln ⁡ ( 2 ) / CodingRate wherein VertibiMetric 2 is a squared Viterbi metric value for a format parameter, N is the number of assumed transmitted bits corresponding to a format, Sigma 2 (σ 2 ) represents the noise variance of the received block, and coding rate represents the known encoding rate used for transmission for the received block; and using a probable transmitted formula to decode the transmitted block.