Patent ID: 8745474

Claim:
A method for determining bits in a convolutionally decoded output bit stream to be marked for erasure, the method comprising: comparing a last k-bits of a convolutionally encoded output bit stream with a corresponding k-bits of a delayed version of an input bit stream to a convolutional decoder, the last k-bits starting at a first bit and ending at first bit+k; for each bit of the last k-bits in the convolutionally encoded output bit stream and in the corresponding k-bits of the delayed version of the input bit stream, determining a number of, or a pattern of conflicting bits; determining whether the number of conflicting k-bits exceeds a first threshold number of conflicting k-bits; comparing a last p-bits of a convolutionally encoded output bit stream with a corresponding p-bits of a delayed version of an input bit stream to a convolutional decoder, the last p-bits starting at a first bit and ending at first bit+p; for each bit of the last p-bits in the convolutionally encoded output bit stream and in the corresponding p-bits of the delayed version of the input bit stream, determining a number of conflicting p-bits; determining whether the number of conflicting p-bits exceeds a second threshold number of conflicting bits; and determining whether any of the conflicting p-bits temporally overlap the conflicting k-bits.