Symbol-by-symbol mobile radio channel equalization using the MN classifier

This paper illustrates an implementation of a GSM receiver in which channel equalization and demodulation are realised by means of the Nearest Neighbor (NN) classifier algorithm. The most important advantage in using such techniques is the significant reduction in terms of computational complexity compared with the MLSE equalizer. No explicit channel estimation need be carried out, and the whole process involves a simple symbol-by-symbol decision procedure. The performance of the proposed receiver, evaluated through a channel simulator for mobile radio communications, is compared with the results obtained by means of a 16 states Viterbi algorithm and other sub-optimal receivers. Despite the simplicity of the receiver, performance degradation is kept within the limits imposed by the GSM specifications.