A decoding algorithm for binary block codes and<tex>J</tex>-ary output channels (Corresp.)

A search algorithm is described to decode long binary block codes of any rate for the memoryless binary input J -ary output channel. It can be used directly to perform maximum-likelihood decoding or in a constrained version that gives considerably fewer searches at a small sacrifice in performance. Simulation results are given for a rate-l/2 code of length 128 and minimum Hamming distance 22 on the quantized Gaussian channel.