Decision feed forward equalization for intersymbol interference cancelation

A method of a receiver, the method comprising:

• receiving a signal over a communication channel;
• generating a digital output comprising a set of bits corresponding to the received signal, wherein the digital output comprises at least one of pre-cursor intersymbol interference (ISI) or post-cursor ISI introduced by the communication channel;
• generating a detected signal comprising a set of detected symbol values, wherein the detected signal is equalized to a partial response and based on the digital output;
• generating a set of estimated transmitted symbol values based on the set of detected symbol values using a partial response inversion;
• and
• canceling at least one of the pre-cursor ISI or the post-cursor ISI from the detected signal using a decision feed forward equalization (DFFE) scheme with the set of estimated transmitted symbol values and a set of tap coefficients to obtain a compensated signal and a set of compensated symbol values.

A system comprising:

• a transmitter;
• and
• a receiver communicatively coupled to the transmitter via a communication channel, wherein the receiver comprises:
• an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to generate a digital output comprising a set of bits corresponding to a received signal, wherein the digital output comprises at least one of pre-cursor intersymbol interference (ISI) or post-cursor ISI introduced by the communication channel;
• a partial response (PR) receiver, coupled to the ADC, to generate, based on the digital output, a detected signal comprising a set of detected symbol values, wherein the detected signal is equalized to a partial response;
• and
• a decision feed forward equalization (DFFE) system coupled to the PR receiver, the DFFE system comprising:
• a partial response (PR) inverter to generate a set of estimated transmitted symbol values based on the set of detected symbol values;
• and
• DFFE circuitry to cancel at least one of the pre-cursor ISI or the post-cursor ISI from the detected signal using the set of estimated transmitted symbol values and a set of tap coefficients to obtain a compensated signal and a set of compensated symbol values.