Conditional fuzzy clustering for blind channel equalization

Abstract

In this study, the use of conditional Fuzzy C-Means (CFCM) aimed at estimation of desired states of an unknown digital communication channel is considered for blind channel equalization. In the proposed CFCM, a collection of estimated centers is treated as a set of pre-defined desired channel states, and used to extract channel output states. By considering the combinations of the extracted channel output states, all possible sets of desired channel states are constructed. The set of desired states characterized by the maximal value of the Bayesian fitness function is subsequently selected for the next clustering epoch. This modification of CFCM makes it possible to search for the optimal desired channel states of an unknown channel. Finally, given the desired channel states, the Bayesian equalizer is implemented to reconstruct transmitted symbols. In a series of simulations, binary signals are generated at random with Gaussian noise, and both linear and nonlinear channels are evaluated. The experimental studies demonstrate that the performance (being expressed in terms of accuracy and speed) of the proposed CFCM is superior to the performance of the existing method exploiting the “conventional” Fuzzy C-Means (FCM).