Efficient sequence detection for intersymbol interference channels with run-length constraints

This paper addresses the data detection problem of intersymbol interference (ISI) channels with a specific modulation code-constraint known as the (d, k) run-length-limited (RLL) constraint, a popular modulation code-constraint for data storage channels as well as certain communication channels. A computationally efficient sequence detection algorithm is proposed which yields a performance close to that of the maximum likelihood sequence detector when applied to such ISI channels. The proposed detector is derived as a high signal-to-noise ratio approximation to the delay-constrained optimum detector, one which minimizes the symbol error probability given a fixed decision-delay constraint. The proposed algorithm is essentially a fixed-delay tree search (FDTS) algorithm with systematic ambiguity checking and is closely related to existing finite-depth tree search algorithms. It is observed that long critical error events common in uncoded ISI channels are eliminated by the RLL constraint. Based on this observation, we show that for some important RLL constrained channels, the proposed FDTS algorithm yields the same minimum Euclidean distance between distinguishable channel output sequences as the unconstrained maximum likelihood sequence detector