Block decoding using the Dorsch Algorithm

The aim of this research is to investigate the Dorsch algorithm performance in the decoding process of binary Hamming codes. The conventional decoding method is hard decision based whereby the message of the demodulator is quantized only to two levels. An important feature of the Dorsch algorithm is that it uses soft decision decoding. Soft decision occurs if the output of the demodulator is quantized to more than two levels. The algorithm uses soft decision information to rank the reliability of the received symbols. The high reliability symbols are treated as the soft decision of the information values whereas the low reliability symbols are treated as parity checks for the information values. The error performance of both the decoding methods were evaluated and concluded. It was observed that Dorsch Algorithm produces better performance compared to the conventional hard decision decoding.