Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Christophe Andrieu

Mong Suan Yee

Robert Jan Piechocki

Cheran Malsri Vithanage

This invention generally relates to methods, apparatus and computer program code for decoding signals, and more particularly to trellis-based decoding using a variant of a BCJR procedure. The invention includes a trellis decoder for decoding symbols of a received signal, the symbol including a sequence defined by transitions between states of a trellis, the trellis decoder including: means for performing a forward recursion through the trellis to determine a first set of probabilities (&#x3b1;(X)) each defining a probability of a said trellis state (X) responsive to one or more current or earlier received signal values (y); means for providing a second set of (&#x3b2;(X)) probabilities each defining a probability of one or more received signal values (y) given an earlier the trellis state (X); means to decode the received signal to determine probabilities (p(b|y)) for symbols of a corresponding transmitted sequence of symbols from the first and second sets of probabilities; and where the decoder further includes: means to select states for determining the first set of probabilities responsive to one or more received signal values later than a the trellis state defining a probability in said first set.

Signal decoding methods and apparatus

A method and an apparatus for estimating likelihood values for signals of a sequence of signals transmitted from a transmitter through a channel to a receiver. The method employs a plurality of particles, each particle having a postulated transmitted signal history, and includes initializing a set of particles, evolving the set of particles over time to generate a succession of evolved sets of particles, tracing a plurality of paths through the succession of evolved sets of particles backwards in time, and determining a sequence of likelihood values for the transmitted sequence of signals using the paths. Communication systems in which a receiver receives signals from a transmitter with a plurality of transmit antennas, such as MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) systems are able to use this method.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Christophe Andrieu