摘要 |
A decoding method for use in a communications system employing a communication channel in which a message is convolutionally encoded by a base station encoder (300) and transmitted to a remote terminal (210) during a time slot (102) allocated to at least that remote terminal. The encoder is not completely reset immediately prior to the allocated time slot such the encoder state is unknown at the onset thereof. The decoding method includes assigning (502) a most likelihood probability for an initial encoder state as being one of a number of predetermined encoder states; and, convolutionally decoding (504, 506, 508) ensuing bits of the message based on the assumption of the initial encoder state as one of the predetermined states. The method affords low error rate decoding, and allows for improved power conservation by a mobile station, since the mobile station need not awaken significantly prior to its allocated time slot. Preferably, a Viterbi decoder (220) is used to perform the convolutional decoding. The method has particular utility when used for decoding page messages indicative of call notifications in a paging channel of a code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless telecommunications system.
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