Statistical detection for communication channels with intersymbol interference

The optimum detector under a fixed delay constraint D is derived for channels having memory and additive noise. The resulting receiver is recursive and does not grow with the message length. Its structure is presented for linear channels (AM and PSK) with known (or estimated) impulse response and noise statistics. The intersymbol interference is assumed to extend for L sampling periods and the receiver is allowed a "look-ahead" at D future received samples. Simulation results using actual channel characteristics show the detector to outperform a transversal equalizer even for relatively small values of D.