Optimum soft decision demodulation for ISI channels

Two different methods of soft-decision demodulation for channels with finite intersymbol interference (ISI) in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) are analyzed. In both schemes, the cutoff rate R₀ of the discrete channel created by the demodulator output quantization is chosen as the design criterion. Expressions for the optimal thresholds of the quantizer associated with the demodulation of binary signals are derived. Results for the channel with memory equal to one symbol duration are presented. As a special case, the (1-D) channel with soft decision demodulation is analyzed. Closed-form solutions show that a 4-b quantizer improves performance substantially in this case