Channel equalization for coded signals in hostile environments

In this correspondence, the detection of trellis-coded modulated signals co rrupted by intersymbol interference, co-channel interference, and nonlinear impairments is treated as a classification task by means of a clustering b ased sequence equalizer decoder. The receiver performs jointly decoding and equalization of trellis-encoded signals. No specific model is required for the channel or for the interference and the noise, and no code knowledge i s needed at the receiver. Complexity reduction of the equalizer is obtained through two suboptimal techniques: a) clusters' grouping and b) the M algo rithm. The robust performance of the proposed scheme is illustrated by simu lations.