Decoding method and apparatus having optimum decoding paths

TL;DR: In this paper, a decoding method and apparatus having an optimum decoding path includes a Viterbi decoder having an overlapping function in which the input signal is moved in units of the window movement distance of at least one symbol and the code sequence is decoded in units representing a decoding depth, so that overlap in the decoded data occurs.

Abstract: A decoding method and apparatus having an optimum decoding path includes a Viterbi decoder having an overlapping function in which the input signal is moved in units of the window movement distance of at least one symbol and the code sequence is decoded in units representing a decoding depth, so that overlap in the decoded data occurs. Then, the output of the Viterbi decoder with the overlap function is stored in a memory. A control signal generator controls the positions of the data to be output from the memory according to the output of a counter receiving the decoded data. The most frequent data out of all data supplied to a comparator is selected as an optimum decoding path. Thus, the error associated with wrong path selection, e.g., when the data is wrongly decoded due to the error generated by the noise added during transmission, can be reduced.