What is Soft Output Viterbi Algorithm (SOVA)

Modern and future wireless communication systems such as UMTS and beyond 3G systems (B3G) are expected to support very high data rates to/from mobile users. This poses important challenges on the handset design as they should be able to attain an acceptable operating bit error rate (BER) while employing a limited set of resources (i.e. low complexity, low power) and often, with tight processing delay constraints. In this chapter we study how channel decoding and equalisation, two widely used mechanisms to combat the deleterious channel effects, can be made adaptable in accordance to the instantaneous operating environment. Simulation results are given demonstrating how receiver reconfigurability is a promising method to achieve complexity/delay efficient receivers while maintaining prescribed quality of service (QoS) constraints.