A wireless transceiver (100) that produces soft decisions for received,
block error correction encoded codewords and a confidence indicator
signifying a likelihood of errors in the detected data. The wireless
transceiver (100) processes block encrypted signals, such as feedback
channel messages in a WiMax uplink. Upon receiving a signal, a soft
decision is determined for received block encoded codewords. A difference
is calculated between a soft decision metric for a most likely detected
codeword and a soft decision metric for a next most likely detected
codeword. This difference is normalized based upon the total decoder
input power received over the received signal (201). The normalized
difference is then scaled by a channel dependent factor and is time
filtered. The normalized and time filtered confidence indicator output
(212) is able to be provided to a wireless network controller to assess
the usability of the received data.