Apparatus and method for determining an optimum equalizer setting for a signal equalizer in a communication network receiver

A method in a receiver, having a signal equalizer and a phase locked loop, of determining an optimum equalizer setting for the signal equalizer, the method comprising:

• successively setting the signal equalizer to one of a plurality of predetermined equalizer settings;
• outputting an equalized signal from the signal equalizer in response to an input signal and based on the one predetermined equalizer setting;
• generating a correlation result in the phase locked loop that specifies a timing correlation of a detected edge of the equalized signal relative to a recovered clock signal generated by the phase locked loop;
• determining a normalized distribution result for each of the predetermined equalizer settings based on a corresponding set of the correlation results for a predetermined number of the detected edges;
• and
• selecting the optimum equalizer setting from the predetermined equalizer settings based on the corresponding normalized distribution result.

A receiver comprising:

• a signal equalizer configured for outputting an equalized signal in response to an input signal and a selected one of a plurality of equalizer settings;
• a phase locked loop for generating a recovered clock signal, the phase locked loop outputting a correlation result that specifies a timing correlation of an edge of the equalized signal relative to the recovered clock signal;
• and
• an equalizer controller for selecting an optimum equalizer setting based on the correlation results for each of the equalizer settings over a prescribed interval, the equalizer controller calculating for each of the equalizer settings a normalized distribution result and selecting the optimum equalizer setting based on the corresponding normalized distribution result.