Patent ID: 7246297

Claim:
An iterative decoder for receiving a sequence of sample representing a series of symbols, and for decoding the received sequence to the series, the decoder comprising: a plurality of variable-nodes, each node for receiving and storing a sample from the sequence, for iteratively passing messages to, and receiving messages from, at least two connected check-nodes in a plurality of check-nodes, for sending each connected check-node a message determined in accordance with the stored sample and message received from the at least one other check-node segment, and for providing as output a decoded symbol determined in accordance with the received messages from the connected check-nodes and the stored sample, at least one node selected from the plurality of variable-nodes and the plurality of check-nodes forming a partition in the respective plurality, the at least one node being of the same degree as at least one node in the at least one other partition, the nodes in each partition using an operation unique to the partition to determine the message to pass to connected nodes.