Equalizer evaluation in integrated data and channel estimation

Per-Survivor Processing is a general approach which includes in the survivors of the Viterbi Algorithm trellis, the relative estimation of unknown parameters; this expensive method better approximates the optimum decoder in certain conditions. The method is applied to the case of a typical HF channel and a simplification is proposed, based on a per survivor equalizer, to be employed when selective fading is present. This solution, although increasing the per survivor cost, greatly reduces the number of states of the Viterbi decoder.