Viterbi decoder
Overview
Viterbi algorithm
The Viterbi algorithm is a dynamic programming algorithm for finding the most likely sequence of hidden states – called the Viterbi path – that results in a sequence of observed events, especially in the context of Markov information sources, and more generally, hidden Markov models...
for decoding a bitstream that has been
encoded using forward error correction
Forward error correction
In telecommunication, information theory, and coding theory, forward error correction or channel coding is a technique used for controlling errors in data transmission over unreliable or noisy communication channels....
based on a convolutional code
Convolutional code
In telecommunication, a convolutional code is a type of error-correcting code in which* each m-bit information symbol to be encoded is transformed into an n-bit symbol, where m/n is the code rate and...
.
There are other algorithms for decoding a convolutionally encoded stream (for example, the Fano algorithm
Robert Fano
Robert Mario Fano is an Italian-American computer scientist, currently professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Fano is known principally for his work on information theory, inventing Shannon-Fano coding...
). The Viterbi algorithm is the most resource-consuming, but it does the maximum likelihood
Maximum likelihood
In statistics, maximum-likelihood estimation is a method of estimating the parameters of a statistical model. When applied to a data set and given a statistical model, maximum-likelihood estimation provides estimates for the model's parameters....
decoding. It is most often used for decoding convolutional codes with constraint lengths k<=10, but values up to k=15 are used in practice.
Viterbi decoding was developed by Andrew J.
