Method and device for performing signal decision in a communication system

摘要

A method and a device for signal decision, a receiver and a channel condition estimating method for a coding communication system are disclosed. A plurality of add, compare and select (ACS) circuits each sequentially determines metrics at a particular trellis tracing rate assigned thereto. The metrics are sequentially added in order to select the most probable path. An M break-up circuit 30 compares the path metrics of the most probable paths and breaks up unlikely paths over a plurality of circuits. The path metrics of probable paths are sequentially written to respective metric memories and again fed to the ACS circuits for trellis tracings. This is repeated until the M break-up circuit 30 selects M paths out of paths fed from N (N>M) ACS circuits. The M paths are delivered to a decision circuit while survivor paths are written to respective path memories. The decision circuit selects one of the M path metrics having the smallest value, reads the path out of the path memory, traces it back, and then outputs decoded bits via an output terminal.