Reconfigurability-power trade-offs in turbo decoder design and implementation

Reconfiguration between decoding algorithms, employed in the 3rd generation mobile communication standards such as the UMTS, CDMA2000 is an added advantage, which facilitates the selection of the appropriate algorithm in any circumstance. The Log-MAP and SOVA algorithms are the two main algorithms employed in the turbo codes, which are featured in the 3G mobile radio standards. In this paper, the authors examine the reconfiguration between a low power Log-AP decoder and a SOVA decoder, and elaborate the advantages over a conventional Log-MAP decoder, in terms of low power/area consumption and the flexibility offered to a turbo decoder.