Also known as: Andrew Viterbi

Andrew Viterbi (born 1935) is an American electrical engineer who devised the Viterbi algorithm for maximum-likelihood decoding of convolutional codes, and co-founded Qualcomm.¹

Viterbi devised the maximum-likelihood decoding algorithm now used to decode convolutional codes everywhere.

Life and work

Viterbi introduced his algorithm in 1967 as a practical way to decode convolutional codes; it became foundational to digital communications and storage.¹

Contribution

His algorithm makes strong forward error correction practical, improving reception at low SNR.

Legacy

Viterbi decoding appears throughout modern radio, from amateur M17 to cellular systems.

Sources

1. Andrew Viterbi — Wikipedia, for biography and his algorithm for decoding convolutional codes. ↩ ↩²

See also

• Viterbi algorithm
• Convolutional code
• Forward error correction (FEC)

Learn it step by step

• The demodulation pipeline