Patent ID: 6850562

Claim:
A digital equalization method for estimating discrete information symbols from digital samples of a signal received over a transmission channel represented by a finite impulse response of W+1 coefficients, W being an integer greater than 1, comprising the steps of: determining W roots in the complex plane of a Z-transform of the impulse response; distributing the W roots into a first set of W-p roots and a second set of p roots, p being an integer greater than 0 and smaller than W, the roots of the second set being closer to a unit circle of the complex plane than those of the first set according to a determined distance criterion in the complex plane; obtaining an intermediate signal by applying a first equalization method to the received signal based on a finite impulse response having a Z-transform consisting of a polynomial of degree W-p in Z −1 , having roots equal to the W-p roots of the first set; and obtaining estimations of the discrete information symbols by applying a second equalization method to the intermediate signal based on a finite impulse response having a Z-transform consisting of a polynomial of degree p in Z −1 , having roots equal to the p roots of the second set.