Data Detection Method and Data Detector for Signals Transmitted Over a Communication Channel With Inner-Symbol Interference

A data detection method, comprising the steps of:

• a. receiving a signal transmitted over a communication channel, said signal being representative of at least a stream of interfering symbols xk, each representing one or more bits of a transmitted message;
• b. filtering the received signal through at least a filter bank comprising at least a first filter representative of a linear response of said channel and a second filter representative of a non-linear response of said channel, and sampling the filtered signals at the symbol rate, thus obtaining respective sequences of filtered samples rk(1),rk(3);
• and
• c. jointly computing the a posteriori probabilities of N>1 consecutive symbols xk by applying the sum-product algorithm to a probability mass function expressed by the product of N terms, each being associated to a symbol xk and being proportional to the product of an indicator function, an a priori probability, a first function representing the inter-symbol interference due to the Q symbols which precede said symbol xk and of a second function representing the inter-symbol interference due to the (L−Q) symbols immediately preceding said Q symbols which precede symbol xk;
• where:
• L is an integer greater than zero, representing the memory of the communication channel;
• Q is an integer greater than zero and not greater than L, serving as a design parameter;
• thus realizing simultaneous soft-input-soft-output detection of a packet of N symbols of the transmitted message.