Patent ID: 8627189

Claim:
A method implemented on a computing device—in a software defined radio (SDR) system—by a processor configured to execute instructions that, when executed by the processor, direct the computing to device to perform acts comprising: receiving an array of data bits; loading a set of bits of the array of data bits; performing a “min” operation to find an optimal path in a Trellis diagram of a Viterbi decoder, wherein the “min” operation includes: starting from a known state in the Trellis diagram; and updating a data structure for each expansion in the Trellis diagram relative to the known state, the data structure containing a path metric embedded in most significant bits to define a minimal value for each state in the expansion, and a path index embedded in least significant bits to define link information for the minimal value; and tracing back the minimal values relative to an end state of the Trellis diagram to obtain the optimal path.