US Patent 7916605 Joint DC minimization and bit detection

The present techniques provide systems and methods for decoding a data signal with a control bit to improve bit estimation. The techniques in one embodiment involve using decoding algorithms to estimate the a posteriori state probabilities and the a posteriori transition probabilities of the data encoding, and estimating bit state probabilities. The techniques further involve using a control bit in the bit stream and comparing the estimation of the control bit state in the segment of the bit stream with a test control bit determined based on an average of bit states from the encoded segment of the bit stream. If the estimation of the control bit and the test control bit are not equal, the state of the bit estimate with the lowest confidence probability will be changed.