Patent ID: 8386897

Claim:
A method of decoding an encoded bit stream at a decoder, the encoded bit stream having encoded information bits, encoded parity bits and encoded parity-on-parity bits, the method comprising: assembling information codewords from the encoded information bits and the encoded parity bits; assembling parity codewords from the encoded parity bits and the encoded parity-on-parity bits; decoding the information codewords and the parity codewords to provide decoded information codewords, decoded parity codewords and associated per-codeword confidence metric for each of the decoded information codewords and for each of the decoded parity codewords; and, for each encoded information bit in the encoded bit stream, each encoded information bit being associated with one decoded information codeword and one decoded parity codeword: obtaining a decoded information bit based on the one of the two decoded information codeword and the decoded parity codeword having a higher per-codeword confidence metric.