Decision feedback sequence estimation for continuous phase modulation on a linear multipath channel

An approach to reduced-complexity detection of partial response continuous phase modulation (CPM) on a linear multipath channel is presented. The method, referred to as decision feedback sequence estimation (DFSE), is based on a conventional Viterbi algorithm (VA) using a reduced-state trellis combined with decision feedback (DF). By varying the number of states in the VA, the receiver structure can be changed gradually from a DF receiver to the optimal maximum-likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE). In this way different tradeoffs between performance and complexity can be obtained. Results on the receiver performance, based on minimum distance calculations and bit error rate simulations, are given for Gaussian minimum-shift keying modulation on typical mobile radio channels. It is shown that for channels with a long memory, a significant complexity reduction can be achieved at the cost of a moderate degradation in performance