Comparison of channel models for Patterned Media Storage

Patterned Media Storage (PMS) is one of the promising technologies to overcome the limitations of the conventional magnetic recording. While advanced signal processing and coding algorithms helps to improve the bit error rate performance of Patterned Media Storage (PMS) channel, they have to be designed by considering the underlying channel model. In literature, there are two popular channel models for PMS: Approximate Model and Analytical Model. In this paper, we first shortly explain these models and then compare their responses by calculating their normalized mean-square error (NMSE) between two models. Through the numerical experiments, we find that NMSE can be substantially high up to 99%. Therefore, we conclude that Approximate Model should not be used to develop signal processing algorithms for PMS.