Soft-input generation for soft-decision FEC decoding

1. A method for soft decision differential decoding, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of input symbols each comprising in-phase and quadrature components;

identifying a plurality of probability of transition terms for calculating reliability of transitions between the input symbols;

for each transition, identifying a subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms; and

generating a reliability metric for each transition using the applicable subset of dominating probability of transition terms for each respective transition.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reliability metric comprises a maximum likelihood ratio calculation.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

selecting the subset of the plurality of terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms by evaluating relative magnitudes of in-phase and quadrature components of both input symbols involved in the transition.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

selecting the subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms by identifying a smallest magnitude of: an in-phase component of a first input symbol involved in transition, a quadrature component of the first input symbol involved in a transition, an in-phase component of a second input symbol involved in transition, and a quadrature component of the second input symbol involved in a transition.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identification of the subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms is performed in real time.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of input symbols is received after coherent quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) detection.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of input symbols comprises an in-phase and a quadrature component, each input symbol received from a demodulator.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method for soft decision differential decoding is performed for each polarization of a dual polarization signal.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received plurality of input symbols comprises a digitized version of a received optical communications signal.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received plurality of input symbols comprises a digitized version of a received satellite communications signal.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

forwarding the generated reliability metric to a decoder.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the decoder comprises a turbo decoder.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

generating a hard decision for each transition; and

forwarding the hard decision with the reliability metric to the decoder.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed by a processor.

15. A system for soft decision differential decoding, the system comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of input symbols, each comprising in-phase and quadrature components;

means for identifying a plurality of probability of transition terms for calculating reliability of transitions between input symbols;

means for identifying, for each transition, a subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms; and

means for generating a reliability metric for each transition using the applicable subset of dominating probability of transition terms for each respective transition.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the reliability metric comprises a maximum likelihood ratio calculation.

17. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:

means for selecting the subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms by using relative magnitudes of in-phase and quadrature components of both input symbols involved in the transition to select dominant terms according a predetermined criteria.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the identification of the subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms is performed in real time after coherent quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) detection.

19. The system of claim 15 , wherein the soft decision differential decoding is performed for each polarization of a dual polarization signal.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the received plurality of input symbols comprises a digitized version of a received optical communications signal or received wireless communications signal.

21. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:

means for forwarding the generated reliability metric to a decoder.

22. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:

means for generating a hard decision for each transition;

means for forwarding the hard decision with the reliability metric to the decoder; and

means for decoding the received plurality of input symbols using the hard decision and the reliability metric for each transition.

23. A device for soft decision differential decoding, the method comprising:

a receiver module configured to receive a plurality of input symbols each comprising in-phase and quadrature components;

dominating term identification module, communicatively coupled with the receiver module, and configured to:

identify a plurality of probability of transition terms for calculating reliability of transitions between input symbols; and

for each transition, identify a subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms; and

reliability metric generation module, communicatively coupled with the dominating term identification module, and configured to generate a reliability metric for each transition using the applicable subset of dominating probability of transition terms for each respective transition.

24. The device of claim 23 , wherein the dominating term identification module is configured to:

select the subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms by evaluating relative magnitudes of in-phase and quadrature components of both input symbols involved in the transition.

25. The device of claim 23 , wherein the dominating term identification module is configured to:

select the subset of the plurality of probability of transition terms comprising dominating probability of transition terms in real time, wherein the selection is based in part on identifying a smallest magnitude of: an in-phase component of a first input symbol involved in transition, a quadrature component of the first input symbol involved in a transition, an in-phase component of a second input symbol involved in transition, and a quadrature component of the second input symbol involved in a transition.

26. The device of claim 23 , wherein each of the plurality of input symbols comprises an in-phase and a quadrature component, each input symbol received from a demodulator after coherent quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) detection.

27. The device of claim 23 , wherein the soft decision differential decoding is performed for each polarization of a dual polarization optical communications signal.

28. The device of claim 23 , wherein the reliability metric generation module is configured to forward the generated reliability metric to a turbo decoder module.

29. The device of claim 23 , further comprising:

a hard decision module configured to:

generate a hard decision for each transition; and

forward the hard decision with the turbo decoder module; and

the turbo decoder module, communicatively coupled with the hard decision module and the reliability metric generation module, and configured to decode the plurality of input symbols using the hard decision information and the generated reliability metrics.

30. The device of claim 23 , wherein the device comprises a processor.