Patent ID: 8020064

Claim:
A decoder that operates on data represented in a sequence of received symbols, wherein the sequence of received symbols comprises a source sequence of symbols and a first and a second sequence of codewords, said decoder comprising N successive decoder groups numbered 1 to N arranged in series, each decoder group including: primary decoding means for decoding the first sequence of codewords in combination with the source sequence of symbols to produce a sequence of primary decoded symbols; intermediate interleaving means for interleaving the sequence of primary decoded symbols using intra-block permutations on the source sequence of symbols and inter-block permutations on each intra-block permuted block across the predetermined number of the intra-block permuted blocks to produce a sequence of intermediate symbols; secondary decoding means for decoding the second sequence of codewords in combination with the sequence of intermediate symbols and a sequence of interleaved source symbols to produce a sequence of secondary decoded symbols; and de-interleaving means for de-interleaving the sequence of secondary decoded symbols to produce a sequence of estimated symbols, the sequence of estimated symbols being produced by each decoder group from the 1 st decoder group to the (N−1) th decoder group being applied to the primary decoding means of each successive decoder group, the sequence of estimated symbols from the Nth decoder group being the decoder output symbols, said decoder not including means for providing the sequence of deinterleaved secondary decoded symbols of the Nth decoder group to the primary decoding means in the 1st decoder group.