AN EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY FOR SEQUENTIAL DECODING

Abstract : This report describes the system design and implementation of a facility for the experimental study of sequential decoding that may be used at M.I.T. by graduate researchers in communications theory. Flexibility and ease of use are the primary requirements of this system. Thorough investigation of the characteristics of sequential decoding and likely problems to be studied led to a system based upon the Project MAC PDP-6 computer. A portable data-acquisition system, consisting of a digital tape recorder and analog-to-digital conversion equipment, is provided to make available to the computer the outputs of experimental demodulation equipment. The experimenter can decode the acquired data sequentially in accordance with an algorithm specified and easily written by him in a version of Fortran modified for this purpose. A display system is used for man-machine interaction. The system has been successfully implemented and tested, and experimental results are described.