Equalization for discrete multitone transceivers to maximize bit rate

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In a discrete multitone receiver, a time-domain equalizer (TEQ) reduces the intersymbol interference (ISI) by shortening the effective duration of the channel impulse response. Current TEQ design methods such as the minimum mean-squared error (MMSE), maximum shortening SNR (MSSNR), and maximum geometric SNR (MGSNR) do not directly maximize bit rate. We develop two TEQ design methods to maximize the bit rate. First, we partition an equalized multicarrier channel into its equivalent signal, noise, and ISI paths to develop a new subchannel SNR definition. Then, we derive a nonlinear function of TEQ taps that measures the bit rate, which the proposed maximum bit rate (MBR) method optimizes. We also propose a minimum-ISI method that generalizes the MSSNR method by weighting the ISI in the frequency domain to obtain higher performance. The minimum-ISI method is amenable to real-time implementation on a fixed-point digital signal processor. Based on simulations using eight different carrier-serving-area loop channels, (1) the proposed methods yield higher bit rates than MMSE, MGSNR, and MSSNR methods; (2) the proposed methods give three-tap TEQs with higher bit rates than 17-tap MMSE, MGSNR, and MSSNR TEQs; (3) the proposed MBR method achieves the channel capacity (as computed by the matched filter bound using the proposed subchannel SNR model) with a five-tap TEQ; and (4) the proposed minimum-ISI method achieves the bit rate of the optimal MBR method.