Decoding performance of linear block codes using a trellis indigital mobile radio

Trellis decoding of linear block codes in a Rayleigh fading channel is discussed. Two methods for calculating metric values for each bit in a received block are considered: the values are calculated from the received signal envelope sample and from the demodulator output. Bit error rate (BER) performances of hard decision and trellis decoding are compared using Hamming (7, 4) and Golay (24, 12) codes in computer simulations and laboratory experiments. A simplified trellis decoding algorithm, in which the hard decision output of a bit with an envelope sample greater than the threshold value is accepted as correct, is presented. Laboratory experimental results for trellis decoding in combination with Gaussian minimum-shift-keying (GMSK) modulation and frequency detection are shown. The effect of n-bit A/D-conversion in signal envelope sampling is investigated experimentally. The results show that the trellis decoding algorithm improves BER performance