A Soft Bit Metric Demodulator for Pre-coded Quaternary CPM Signals

A receiver generates log-likelihood-ratio-based soft bit metrics of precoded quaternary continuous phase modulation signals using four state-constrained trellises and a streamlined maximum likelihood sequence estimation Viterbi algorithm requiring no survivor state storage elements for a preferred error correction-coded quaternary Gaussian minimum shift keying communication system employing reduced-complexity pulse-amplitude modulation matched-filtering and soft-decision decoding.