The loss in quantizing coded symbols in the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel with binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) or quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation is discussed. A quantization scheme and branch metric calculation method are presented. For the uniformly quantized AWGN channel, cutoff rate is used to determine the step size and the smallest number of quantization bits needed for a given bit-signal-to-noise ratio (E/sub b//N/sub 0/) loss. A nine-level quantizer is presented, along with 3-b branch metrics for a rate-1/2 code, which causes an E/sub b//N/sub 0/ loss of only 0.14 dB. These results also apply to soft-decision decoding of block codes. A tight upper bound is derived for the range of path metrics in a Viterbi decoder. The calculations are verified by simulations of several convolutional codes, including the memory-14, rate-1/4 or -1/6 codes used by the big Viterbi decoders at JPL.>

A bound is derived and analyzed for the bit error rate (BER) of a Viterbi decoder with survivor truncation. Estimates of the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) loss on the AWGN (additive white Gaussian noise) channel due to truncation are obtained for convolutional codes. Larger truncation lengths are required than the smallest value that does not effectively decrease the code's free distance, especially at low E/sub b//N/sub 0/.>