Pseudo-maximum likelihood data estimation of digital sequences in the presence of intersymbol interference

A pseudo-maximum likelihood data estimation (PML) algorithm for discrete channels with finite memory in additive white Gaussian noise is developed. Unlike the traditional methods which utilize the Viterbi algorithm (VA) for data sequence estimation, the PML algorithm offers an alternative solution to the problem which is much easier to implement. There is a tradeoff in the PML algorithm between computational complexity and performance. The performance of PML is compared with the optimum receiver (VA with known channel)