A sequential decoder for differential detection of trellis coded PSK signals

A soft-decision sequential decoder is presented for the differential detection of the trellis-coded phase-shift keyed (PSK) signal. The decoder is based on use of the redundancy introduced by the differential encoder. This is done by joint utilization of several differential detectors. The performance of the decoder is evaluated using the trellis-coded 4-PSK and 8-PSK schemes. Simulation results indicate that for Gaussian and Rician channels, the sequential decoder provides significant performance improvements.<<ETX>>