Low-Complexity Iterative Frequency Domain Decision Feedback Equalization

Single-carrier transmission with frequency-domain equalization (SC-FDE) offers a viable design alternative to the classic orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) technique. However, SC-FDE using a linear equalizer may suffer from serious performance deterioration for transmission over severely frequency-selective fading channels. An effective method of solving this problem is to introduce nonlinear decision feedback equalization (DFE) to SC-FDE. In this paper, a low-complexity iterative DFE operating in the frequency domain of single-carrier systems is proposed. Based on the minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) criterion, a simplified parameter estimation method is introduced to calculate the coefficients of the feedforward and feedback filters, which significantly reduces the implementation complexity of the equalizer. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed simplified design is similar to the traditional iterative block DFE under various multipath fading channels, but it imposes a much lower complexity than the latter.