M. Tomlinson et Mna. Aburgheff, THE TAR DECODER - A BANDPASS VITERBI FFT DECODER FOR CONVOLUTIONAL ENCODED SPREAD-SPECTRUM SIGNALS/, IEEE transactions on communications, 44(11), 1996, pp. 1392-1398
A new form of bandpass convolutional decoder termed the TAR decoder is
presented. The decoder has as its basis the classic Viterbi algorithm
, but uses a fast Fourier transform (FFT) in order to cope with a freq
uency offset, phase rotating, received signal. The TAR decoder also us
es a two-dimensional (2-D) despread signal history array in addition t
o the usual path history registers. The advantage of the TAR decoder i
s that the decoder does not need to be preceded by a modem and is not
subject to the problems of cycle slips. It can operate at negative inp
ut signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values and is well suited to the decodi
ng of low rate convolutional codes as may be used in code-division mul
tiple-access (CDMA) systems. Symbol timing recovery is still required
but this is straightforward in practical cases down to congruent to-15
dB SNR.