Apparatus and method for converting soft symbols into soft bits

摘要

In a communication unit (200) that coherently demodulates differentially-encoded modulated signals (201) to produce soft symbols (210) including first and second soft symbols, a method and associated apparatus, for use by the communication unit (200), converts the soft symbols (210) into soft bits (212). A quality measure (305) is determined for at least the first soft symbol (210) indicating when the quality for the first soft symbol (210) is favorable and when the quality for the first soft symbol (210) is unfavorable. The first and second soft symbols (210) are processed in a forward direction in time (208) to produce the soft bits (212) when the quality measure (305) for the first soft symbol (210) is favorable. The first and second soft symbols (210) are processed in a reverse direction in time (209) to produce the soft bits (212) when the quality measure (305) for the first soft symbol (210) is unfavorable.