Channel Equalization Using a Kalman Filter for Fast Data Transmission

Abstract

This paper shows how a Kalman filter may be applied to the problem of setting the tap gains of transversal equalizers to minimize mean-square distortion. In the presence of noise and without prior knowledge about the channel, the filter algorithm leads to faster convergence than other methods, its speed of convergence depending only on the number of taps. Theoretical results are given and computer simulation is used to corroborate the theory and to compare the algorithm with the classical steepest descent method.