Patent ID: 7298801

Claim:
A device for equalizing and decoding digital signals from K users including K modules, each module comprising: an equalizer; and a decoder, wherein an equalizer of rank k, k being an index between 1 and K, is linked to at least one decoder of lower rank 1 to k−1, and an equalizer of rank k−1 thereby receives information from a user of higher rank k to K, whether symbols from signals of K users are useable or not, wherein each equalizer includes a first and second block, the first block configured to receive at least a signal to be demodulated from a user k and estimates of the symbols associated with users 1 to k−1, and the second block configured to subtract a contribution from past symbols already demodulated from a signal received from the first block, and the first block receives, at an ith iteration, at least the signal from user k to be demodulated, at least the estimates of the symbols associated with users 1 to k−1 corresponding to the ith iteration and estimates of the symbols of users k+1 to K which are obtained at the (i−1)th iteration and the second block receives the estimates of the symbols of user k which are obtained at the (i−1)th iteration.