A feedforward receiver for reducing inter-symbol interference in a received symbol, said receiver comprising: an equalizer configured to receive the symbol and output a joint soft value corresponding to a set of cumulative state metrics of an intersymbol-interference trellis, which joint soft value includes joint information of a modem bit x and a previous modem bit x', wherein a step of determining the joint soft value comprises computing equation E ʺ xʹ x = F k − 2 j xʹ, x ʺ + f k − 1 j xʹ, x ʺ j x ʹ + f k j x ʹ φ; wherein E" ( x', x) defines a set of cumulative state metrics, F k − 2 j xʹ, x ʺ defines a set of cumulative state metrics for index k-2, k defines a time index, f k − 1 j xʹ, x ʺ j x ʹ defines a set of branch metrics at index k-1, f k j x ʹ φ defines a set of branch metrics at index k; x denotes a modem bit labelling a branch from stage k-1 to stage k, φ denotes a best trellis state at index k, j x ʹ denotes a set of trellis states at index k-1, j xʹ, x ʺ denotes a set of trellis states at index k-2; a fusion function, configured to receive the joint soft value as the set of the four values E"(0,1), E"(1,1), E"(0,0), and E"(1,0) and to output an input soft value, λ = min(E"(1,0), E"(1,1)) - min(E"(0,0), E"(0,1)) for the previous modem bit x'; a decoder configured to receive the input soft value for the previous modem bit x' and to output an output soft value for the previous modem bit x'; and a modification unit configured to subtract the input soft value for the previous modem bit x' from the output soft value for the previous modem bit x' to generate side information which is in a form of a bias about the previous modem bit x'; wherein said fusion function is further configured to receive the side information and process the side information and the joint soft value to generate an improved single soft value for modem bit x. an equalizer configured to receive the symbol and output a joint soft value corresponding to a set of cumulative state metrics of an intersymbol-interference trellis, which joint soft value includes joint information of a modem bit x and a previous modem bit x', wherein a step of determining the joint soft value comprises computing equation E ʺ xʹ x = F k − 2 j xʹ, x ʺ + f k − 1 j xʹ, x ʺ j x ʹ + f k j x ʹ φ; wherein E" ( x', x) defines a set of cumulative state metrics, F k − 2 j xʹ, x ʺ defines a set of cumulative state metrics for index k-2, k defines a time index, f k − 1 j xʹ, x ʺ j x ʹ defines a set of branch metrics at index k-1, f k j x ʹ φ defines a set of branch metrics at index k; x denotes a modem bit labelling a branch from stage k-1 to stage k, φ denotes a best trellis state at index k, j x ʹ denotes a set of trellis states at index k-1, j xʹ, x ʺ denotes a set of trellis states at index k-2; wherein E" ( x', x) defines a set of cumulative state metrics, F k − 2 j xʹ, x ʺ defines a set of cumulative state metrics for index k-2, k defines a time index, f k − 1 j xʹ, x ʺ j x ʹ defines a set of branch metrics at index k-1, f k j x ʹ φ defines a set of branch metrics at index k; x denotes a modem bit labelling a branch from stage k-1 to stage k, φ denotes a best trellis state at index k, j x ʹ denotes a set of trellis states at index k-1, j xʹ, x ʺ denotes a set of trellis states at index k-2; a fusion function, configured to receive the joint soft value as the set of the four values E"(0,1), E"(1,1), E"(0,0), and E"(1,0) and to output an input soft value, λ = min(E"(1,0), E"(1,1)) - min(E"(0,0), E"(0,1)) for the previous modem bit x'; a decoder configured to receive the input soft value for the previous modem bit x' and to output an output soft value for the previous modem bit x'; and a modification unit configured to subtract the input soft value for the previous modem bit x' from the output soft value for the previous modem bit x' to generate side information which is in a form of a bias about the previous modem bit x'; wherein said fusion function is further configured to receive the side information and process the side information and the joint soft value to generate an improved single soft value for modem bit x.