Patent ID: 7876847

Claim:
A receiver-implemented method for generating soft bit values for a multi-bit symbol encoded in one or more received signals, the method comprising: (a) for a plurality of different combinations of multiple bit values, the receiver iteratively generating, for each combination, a metric value based on the one or more received signals; (b) for each iteration, the receiver maintaining: a global extremum register containing a global extremum of the metric values; a bit occupancy for the global extremum register; and a plurality of bit b k registers, one for each bit b k in the symbol, wherein each bit b k register contains an extremum of the metric values corresponding to combinations of multiple bit values whose bit b k value is inverse to that of the bit b k value of the bit occupancy for the global extremum register; and (c) the receiver generating, for each bit b k in the symbol, a soft bit value based on a difference between the value in the global extremum register and the value in the corresponding bit b k register.