Reduced soft output information packet selection

摘要

An apparatus for and method of reducing the soft output information packet to be computed by a soft symbol generator. The reduced soft output information packet generated by the soft symbol generator is subsequently used by a soft symbol to soft bit mapper which functions to convert soft symbol decision information into soft bit decision information. A symbol competitor table is constructed that includes the most likely symbol competitors for each bit of the symbol. The table is populated with m entries for each possible symbol value, where m represents the number of bits per symbol. Symbol competitors am retrieved from the table in accordance with hard decisions. Soft symbol information is generated only for symbol competitors rather than for all possible symbols thus substantially reducing the size of the information packet.