Deterministic distortion insensitive adaptive receiver using decision updating

A method of mitigating effects of deterministic distortion in a communications channel, the method comprising:

• causing a symbol sequence of known characteristics to be transmitted over the communications channel;
• for individual ones of M timing phases of the symbol sequence, separately calculating and adaptively updating decisions based at least in part on one or more previous decisions corresponding to the respective timing phase for individual ones of the M timing phases together defining a decision sequence;
• and
• adapting a receiver to reduce error between the decision sequence and the symbol sequence, wherein the deterministic distortion is guaranteed to be periodic in M, and wherein the adaptive updating comprises separately updating decisions for individual ones of the M timing phases in round-robin sequence.

A communications device for connection to a communication network wherein information units transmitted thereover may be altered by deterministic distortion in a digital portion thereof, the communications device comprising:

• a receiver operable on a received signal to produce a received sequence corresponding to a symbol sequence of known characteristics transmitted over the communication network, the symbol sequence includes a training sequence;
• a decision mechanism operable to generate a decision sequence, wherein elements of the decision sequence are separately calculated for individual ones of M timing phases based at least in part on one or more previous decisions corresponding to the respective timing phase, and wherein M is selected such that the deterministic distortion is guaranteed to be periodic in a period defined by the M timing phases;
• an adaptive update mechanism operable to update the receiver to reduce error between the decision sequence and the symbol sequence and operable at least during a training phase, wherein the training phase includes first and second portions;
• and
• an initial decision mechanism operable during the first portion to achieve at least gross convergence of the receiver, wherein the decision mechanism is operable thereafter during the second portion.