Evaluate the Word Error Rate of Binary Block Codes with Square Radius Probability Density Function

The word error rate (WER) of soft-decision-decoded binary block codes rarely has closed-form. Bounding techniques are widely used to evaluate the performance of maximum-likelihood decoding algorithm. But the existing bounds are not tight enough especially for low signal-to-noise ratios and become looser when a suboptimum decoding algorithm is used. This paper proposes a new concept named square radius probability density function (SR-PDF) of decision region to evaluate the WER. Based on the SR-PDF, The WER of binary block codes can be calculated precisely for ML and suboptimum decoders. Furthermore, for a long binary block code, SR-PDF can be approximated by Gamma distribution with only two parameters that can be measured easily. Using this property, two closed-form approximative expressions are proposed which are very close to the simulation results of the WER of interesting.