Sequential Decoding of Convolutional Codes with Universal Metric over Bursty-Noise Channel

The Fano metric is the maximum likelihood decoding choice for convlutional code for binary symmetric channel. The Fano metric assumes that it has previous knowledge of channel error probability. However, the bit errors in real channel occur in bursts and the channel error probability can not be known exactly. Thus, the Fano metric is not the maximum likelihood choice for bursty-noise channel. In this paper universal metri which dose not require the previous knowlege of the channel transition probability is used for sequential decoding. It is shown that the complexity of the universal is much less than that of the Fano metric bursty-noise channel, since it is estimated on a branch by branch basis.