Blind equalization of nonlinear channels from second-order statistics

This paper addresses the blind equalization problem for single-input multiple-output nonlinear channels, based on the second-order statistics (SOS) of the received signal. We consider the class of “linear in the parameters” channels, which can be seen as multiple-input systems in which the additional inputs are nonlinear functions of the signal of interest. These models include (but are not limited to) polynomial approximations of nonlinear systems. Although any SOS-based method can only identify the channel to within a mixing matrix (at best), sufficient conditions are given to ensure that the ambiguity is at a level that still allows for the computation of linear FIR equalizers from the received signal SOS, should such equalizers exist. These conditions involve only statistical characteristics of the input signal and the channel nonlinearities and can therefore be checked a priori. Based on these conditions, blind algorithms are developed for the computation of the linear equalizers. Simulation results show that these algorithms compare favorably with previous deterministic methods.