Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha

Yasuko Shinata

Makoto Ohnishi

Yoshiaki Asakawa

Masahiro Koya

There is provided a maximum likelihood decoding method, and an apparatus, capable of correcting burst errors caused by abrupt lowering of the signal amplitude. The soft decision maximum likelihood decoding method is a maximum likelihood decoding method for conducting maximum likelihood decoding on a received train resulting from addition of an error train to a transmission code train, which has been obtained by coding an information train by using convolutional codes on a transmission side. The soft decision maximum likelihood decoding method includes the step of making corrections by multiplying the soft decision likelihood metric having a multi-valued level, which has been obtained by soft decision likelihood metric from the received train, by weighting coefficients depending upon an instantaneous amplitude of the received signal, and the step of conducting maximum likelihood decoding by using corrected soft decision likelihood metric values. Thereby, it becomes possible to enhance the error correcting capability of error correcting apparatuses used in mobile radio communication or the like with severe fading. As a result, communication reliability is increased.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yasuko Shinata