Signal Impropriety in Discrete Multi-Tone Systems and Widely Linear Per-Tone Equalization

In the context of digital subscriber line (DSL) systems, where the long-reach (LR) extension of G.fast has recently been proposed, interest in techniques dealing with long channel impulse responses (CIRs) without increasing the cyclic prefix (CP) length of the discrete multi-tone (DMT) modulation has recently resurfaced. The technique under consideration in this article is referred to as channel shortening, and applies FIR filters to the received signal to shorten the apparent CIR. Time-domain equalization (TEQ) as well optimal per-tone equalization (PTEQ) FIR filters will be considered. When channel shortening techniques are analyzed, it is often overlooked that the received signals after DMT demodulation are generally improper when the CP is too short. Hence, the state-of-the-art signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and bit loading expressions employed to assess system performance, which implicitly assume the received signals to be proper, misrepresent the true achievable performance. New expressions for the SINR and bit loading are therefore presented that explicitly take signal impropriety into account. Based on these expressions, it is then observed that - if the received signals are improper - the PTEQ FIR filters are no longer optimal, and that the achievable bit loading depends on a particular phase shift experienced by the transmitted signals. This article therefore introduces a novel widely linear PTEQ - which is again optimal when the received signals are improper - and additionally proposes to optimally rotate signals in the complex plane prior to transmission. Finally, this article assesses the performance increase obtainable by explicitly accounting for signal impropriety.