Patent ID: 7586998

Claim:
A method for measuring a value of a pulse response at a receiver of a data transmission system, comprising: initializing a first pattern to match to any symbol for all elements of the first pattern to match; initializing a second pattern to match any symbol for all elements of the second pattern to match; adjusting the first pattern to match by replacing a first entry in the first pattern to match with a one value and replacing a second entry in the first pattern to match with a predetermined symbol; adjusting the second pattern to match by replacing a first entry in the second pattern to match with a one value and replacing a second entry in the second pattern to match with a predetermined symbol; supplying a received signal to a data slicer and an error slicer; masking for a first subset of data slicer values, wherein masking for the first subset of data slicer values involves matching the first subset of data slicer values, element by element, against the first pattern to match; and wherein an element of the first subset of data slicer values matches an element of the first pattern to match if the element of the first subset of data slicer values is identical to the element of the first pattern to match or the element of the first pattern to match is such that it matches any symbol; adjusting the error slicer threshold to a first average signal level of the first subset; masking for a second subset of data slicer values, wherein masking for the second subset of data slicer values involves matching the second subset of data slicer values, element by element, against the second pattern to match; and wherein an element of the second subset of data slicer values matches an element of the second pattern to match if the element of the second subset of data slicer values is identical to the element of the second pattern to match or the element of the second pattern to match is such that it matches any symbol; adjusting the error slicer threshold to a second average signal level of the second subset; and determining the value of the pulse response from the first and second average signal levels based on the masked first subset of data slicer values and the masked second subset of data slicer values.