High performance equalizer having reduced complexity

A method of processing a communication signal, comprising:

• processing, by a decision feedback equalizer, an input signal to produce a decision signal, the decision feedback equalizer including:
• a decision device;
• and
• a first feedback filter coupled to the decision device in feedback fashion;
• processing, by a second feedback filter, the decision signal to produce a cancellation signal, wherein the second feedback filter is separate from the first feedback filter;
• and
• generating, by a nonlinear equalizer, an output signal based on the cancellation signal.

An equalizer, comprising:

• a feed forward filter configured to filter a signal according to a plurality of filter coefficients to provide an input signal, the plurality of filter coefficients being based on a channel estimate of the signal;
• a first decision feedback equalizer configured to provide a decision signal,
• wherein the decision signal is based on a difference between the input signal and a filtered signal, and
• wherein the filtered signal is provided by filtering the decision signal according to the plurality of filter coefficients;
• a second decision feedback equalizer configured to provide a cancellation signal by filtering the decision signal according to a subset of the plurality of filter coefficients;
• and
• a non-linear equalizer configured to provide an output signal based on a difference between the input signal and the cancellation signal.