A burst-error-correcting Viterbi algorithm

A dual-mode burst-error-correcting algorithm that combines maximum-likelihood decoding with a burst detection scheme is presented. The decoder nominally operates as a Viterbi decoder and switches to time diversity error recovery whenever an uncorrectable error pattern is identified. It is demonstrated that the new scheme outperforms interleaving strategies under the constraint of a fixed overall decoding delay. It also proves to be more powerful than known adaptive burst decoding schemes, such as the Gallager burst finding scheme. As the new method can be used with soft decision decoding, it is mainly intended for use on random-error channels affected by occasional severe bursts