Joint sequence estimation of symbol and phase with high tolerance of nonlinearity

A system comprising:

• a sequence estimation circuit operable to:
• generate a plurality of candidate vectors, wherein each of said plurality of candidate vectors comprises:
• a first element that holds a symbol selected during a previous iteration of said sequence estimation;
• a second element that holds a symbol to be searched;
• and
• a third element that holds a value calculated based on said first element, said second element, and a cost function;
• calculate a plurality of branch metrics corresponding to the plurality of candidate vectors;
• and
• select, based on said plurality of branch metrics, one of said plurality of candidate vectors to be output for use by another circuit.

A method comprising:

• in a sequence estimation circuit of a receiver:
• generating a plurality of candidate vectors, wherein each of said plurality of candidate vectors comprises:
• a first element that holds a symbol selected during a previous iteration of said sequence estimation;
• a second element that holds a symbol to be searched;
• and
• a third element that holds a value calculated based on said first element, said second element, and a cost function;
• calculating a plurality of branch metrics corresponding to the plurality of candidate vectors;
• and
• selecting, based on said plurality of branch metrics, one of said plurality of candidate vectors to be output for use by another circuit.