Joint equalization and decoding for QAM block transmissions

A method of joint equalization and decoding for block transmission with coding across blocks is presented. It is well suited for bandwidth efficient QAM transmission using large transmit symbol alphabets, whereby the blocking structure can be arbitrary in principle. The method consists in multiple iterations of equalization and decoding, whereby information is exchanged back and forth between the decoder and the equalizer. The equalizer is based on Cholesky factorization of the equivalent discrete-time channel matrix (Eur. Trans. Telecommun 10 (1999) 351; Grundlagen der Kommunikationstechnik, Springer, Berlin, 2004). The convergence behavior of the iterative equalization and decoding method is analyzed by means of an upper bound on the extrinsic information transfer. It is shown that the method has improved bit error performance versus separate equalization and decoding without decoder feedback and, thus, yields superior power efficiency.