Iterative Decision Feedback Equalization Using Online Prediction

Abstract

In this article, a new category of soft-input soft-output (SISO) minimum-mean square error (MMSE) finite-impulse response (FIR) decision feedback equalizers (DFEs) with iteration-wise static filters (i.e. iteration variant) is investigated. It has been recently shown that SISO MMSE DFE with dynamic filters (i.e. time-varying) reaches very attractive operating points for high-data rate applications, when compared to alternative turbo-equalizers of the same category, thanks to sequential estimation of data symbols. However the dependence of filters on the feedback incurs high amount of latency and computational costs, hence SISO MMSE DFEs with static filters provide an attractive alternative for computational complexity-performance trade-off. However, the latter category of receivers faces a fundamental design issue on the estimation of the decision feedback reliability for filter computation. To address this issue, a novel approach to decision feedback reliability estimation through online prediction is proposed and applied for SISO FIR DFE with either a posteriori probability (APP) or expectation propagation (EP) based soft feedback. This novel method for filter computation is shown to improve detection performance compared to previously known alternative methods, and finite-length and asymptotic analysis show that DFE with static filters still remains well-suited for high-spectral efficiency applications.