Node synchronization technique for any 1/n rate convolutional code

A node synchronization technique which applies in general to any 1/n rate convolutional code is described. The proposed method makes statistical decisions about node synchronisation based on the hard-quantized undecoded data stream. It is based on a node synchronisation scheme previously suggested by G. Lorden et al. (1984) for the standard rate 1/2, constraint length 7, convolutional code. Two examples illustrating the generalized synchronisation technique for code rates 1/3 and 1/4 are given. Particularly, it is shown that the performance of the method is significantly worse for code rates 1/3 and 1/4 than for the 1/2 rate code