Viterbi Decoder without traceback

1. What are the limitations of Viterbi decoding?
2. Why Viterbi decoding is efficient?
3. What do you mean by surviving path of Viterbi decoding?

What are the limitations of Viterbi decoding?

Limitations. A physical implementation of a viterbi decoder will not yield an exact maximum-likelihood stream due to quantization of the input signal, branch and path metrics, and finite traceback length. Practical implementations do approach within 1 dB of the ideal.

Why Viterbi decoding is efficient?

It is widely used in communication and signal processing to achieve low-error-rate data transmission. The Viterbi decoding method uses the maximum likelihood decoding (MLD) algorithm, which finds the most likely pattern from the received data, and is known as the optimum decoding method [1].

What do you mean by surviving path of Viterbi decoding?

The Viterbi algorithm computes a metric (the metric of a path is defined as the Hamming distance between the sequence represented by that pat hand the received sequence) for every possible path, and chooses the one with the smallest metric. The paths that are retained are called the survivors.