An adaptive maximum-likelihood sequence estimator for fast time-varying intersymbol interference channels

This paper proposes an adaptive maximum-likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE), which is a suboptimum approximation to the adaptive maximum-likelihood detector and is capable of tracking fast time-varying intersymbol interference (ISI) channels. The adaptive MLSE consists of a channel estimator and an MLSE implemented by the Viterbi algorithm (VA). The novel feature of the proposed adaptive MLSE is a channel estimation scheme, where the channel estimation is accomplished for each state in the VA along the surviving path connected to each state. This MLSE makes it possible to estimate a channel impulse response without an influence of a decision delay inherent in the VA, and the performance and complexity of the proposed procedure is controlled by the memory length of the VA. The bit error rate performance of the proposed MLSE is confirmed by experimental results. It is shown that the proposed MLSE has a capability of excellent tracking performance in a severe environment caused by fast time-varying ISI, for example frequency selective multipath fading in digital mobile radio communications