Low-complexity reconfigurable FIR lowpass equalizers for polynomial channel models

Abstract

This paper introduces realizations of a reconfigurable finite-impulse-response (FIR) filter for simultaneous equalization and lowpass filtering. The main advantage of the proposed solutions is computational complexity reduction compared to existing solutions for a given performance, which leads to reduced hardware complexity. The proposed structures employ properties of both a variable bandwidth (VBW) filter and a variable equalizer (VE) with variable coefficients. The overall transfer function of the proposed reconfigurable lowpass equalizer (RLPE) is a weighted linear combination of fixed subfilters where the weights are directly determined by the bandwidth and one or several parameters of the channel needed to be equalized. The paper provides design procedures based on minimax optimization and introduces a fast design method for the filter with several variable parameters that can substantially decrease the design time. Filter order estimation expressions as well as complexity expressions are presented for all proposed realizations. Design examples include comparison of the RLPE structures and a common approach of using a regular FIR equalization filter requiring online redesign when the bandwidth or channel characteristics are changed. It is shown that the number of general multiplications can be reduced up to 91% using the proposed RLPE.