Patent ID: 7849386

Claim:
A method for decoding a tail-biting convolutional encoded signal using Viterbi decoding scheme, said method comprising: receiving a code block of said tail-biting convolutional encoded signal and a padded block, said padded block including at least a portion of said code block, said code block and said padded block being parts of a total code block; performing an add-compare-select operation on said total code block to compute state metric information; performing a traceback operation for a first portion of said total code block using said state metric information, including storing a particular state at a predefined position within said first portion as a circular state; and performing said traceback operation for at least one subsequent portion of said total code block using said circular state as a traceback starting state, including selectively executing bit decisions for said at least one subsequent portion to produce a decoded signal of said code block.