a method of searching for candidate codewords for a telecommunications system , the method comprising receiving a sequence of constellation points , producing a received fec vector comprised of bits from the received constellation points , comparing the received fec vector with a plurality of candidate codewords within a dorsch decoding process using an ordered pattern , and terminating the search when a candidate codeword from among the plurality of candidate codewords is found residing within a predetermined range of a specified distance of the received fec vector .