Blind equalization and estimation of digital communication FIR channels using cumulant matching

We consider the problem of blind estimation and equalization of digital communication FIR (finite impulse response) channels. The channel parameters are estimated by nonlinear batch optimization of a quadratic cumulant matching criterion involving second and fourth order cumulants of the received data. A new algorithm is proposed for (asymptotically) globally convergent, linear estimation of the FIR channel parameters where the FIR model order is not necessarily known. The nonlinear cumulant matching algorithm is initialized by the linear parameter estimator. The estimated channel impulse response is then used to construct a linear equalizer. Two illustrative simulation examples using 4, 16 and 64-QAM signals are presented.<>