Pipeline Decoding of Embedded Trellis Codes: Error-Tolerance Analysis

We consider a decoding procedure based on alternate decoding of embedded trellis codes (pipeline decoding). Upper bounds are derived on decoding error probability of a specific trellis code with embedded structure in a Gaussian channel. The pipeline algorithm is shown to be asymptotically optimal (as $E_s/N_0\to\infty$). In addition to the main error probability bound, we obtain a so-called reduced (simplified) bound, which asymptotically coincides with the main bound.