Patent ID: 7143334

Claim:
A method for decoding a data sequence of K information bits encoded with aid of a binary convolutional code, comprising: calculating in a first operation, on a trellis diagram having trellis segments, first metric values of all trellis segments for a forward direction and for a backward direction using a MaxLogMAP algorithm without a decoding window; selecting a first set of trellis segments as first interpolation nodes from the first operation; storing first associated metric values for the first set of trellis segments in a first memory level; iteratively performing a number of n operations until the metric values for the forward direction and for the backward direction meet in one trellis segment, including: calculating in an i-th operation for 1<i≦n, i-th metric values of internodal trellis segments positioned between the interpolation nodes of an i−1-th operation for the forward and the backward directions using stored metric values of interpolation nodes of the i−1-th operation, selecting an i-th set of trellis segments as i-th interpolation nodes from the i-th operation, and storing i-th associated metric values for the i-th set of trellis segments in an i-th memory level; and carrying out a decision process to calculate soft output values for decoding.