On maximum likelihood soft decoding of some binary self dual codes

The authors present and compare the performance of maximum likelihood (ML) soft decoding algorithms for binary linear self-dual (SD) codes. The codes considered have a minimum distance of 4, but due to their different weight distributions they differ in their coding gain. Remarkably, there is a code, denoted F/sub 24/, which has a decoder nearly 4 times faster than the fastest published decoder (6) for the (24,12,8) Golay code. Nontheless, these two codes have almost equal coding gains. Simulation results are given to compare between the codes. An analytical discussion of the results appears in an Appendix.<>