Word Error Probability Estimation by Means of a Modified Viterbi Decoder

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a new method for calculating word error probabilities by means of a modified Viterbi decoder. The proposed method can be seen as an approximation of the reliability output Viterbi algorithm (ROVA). The results provided by the proposed algorithm are only slightly worse than that of the ROVA, given a significantly lower computational complexity especially for codes with large memory lengths. As a potential application, both algorithms are compared in reliability- based HARQ.