A robust noncoherent equalizer receiver for fading channels with short memory .I. Basic structure

Traditional equalizers are very sensitive to carrier frequency offsets between the transmitter and receiver. Coherent receivers with frequency estimation algorithms can remove the offset to prevent the equalizer breakdown, but with a penalty in receiver complexity. On the other hand, noncoherent receivers such as differential detectors are inherently robust to the frequency offsets but cannot employ standard equalization techniques due to their nonlinear front-end. We introduce a simple noncoherent equalizer receiver structure for fading channel environments with short memory (up to two-bit intervals). The receiver consists of a whitened matched filter followed by a differential detector and a maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) equalizer. We examine the performance of this noncoherent equalizer by both analysis and simulation. It is shown that despite the simplicity, this receiver structure is capable of significant performance improvement as compared to an ordinary differential detector while operating with receiver frequency offsets two orders of magnitude greater than a traditional MLSE equalizer. This structure offers an attractive solution for high-bit-rate cordless transmission systems such as Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) that use simple noncoherent receivers whose performance can be constrained by channel dispersion. Using DECT as a case study, we show that the equalizer's performance limits are caused by the receiver nonlinearity and can be improved by adaptation of this nonlinearity to channel conditions.