On combined equalization and decoding of multilevel coded modulation

We describe an approach to combined equalization and decoding of multilevel block-coded modulation. This approach has better performance than conventional, concatenated equalization and decoding. The proposed structure uses a simple iterative scheme to decode and equalize multilevel block-coded modulation based on decision feedback. We show via computer simulation that the combined scheme gives a performance gain of up to 0.8 dB at a bit-error rate of 10/sup -4/.