A bidirectional multiple stack algorithm

Bidirectional sequential decoding (BSD) substantially reduces the computati onal variability of conventional sequential decoding without compromising t he error performance. However. BSD does not completely eliminate the erasur e problem, We propose in this paper an erasure-free decoding algorithm whic h combines the idea of BSD in conjunction with that of the multiple stack a lgorithm (MSA). It is found that the nerv bidirectional multiple stack algo rithm (BMSA) offers substantial advantages over the MSA in terms of computa tional effort, memory requirements, and error performance. The BMSA appears as an attractive alternative to the Viterbi Algorithm (VA) where low error probabilities and high decoding speeds are required.