A new upper bound on the first-event error probability for maximum-likelihood decoding of fixed binary convolutional codes

An upper bound on the first-event error probability for maximum-likelihood decoding of fixed binary convolutional codes on the binary symmetr ic channel is derived. The bound is evaluated for rate 1 / 2 codes, and comparisons are made with simulations and with the bounds of Viterbi, Van de Meeberg, and Post. In particular, the new bound is significantly better than Van de Meeberg’s bound for rates above Rcomp.