Least bit error rate adaptive nonlinear equalisers for binary signalling

The paper considers the problem of constructing adaptive minimum bit error rate (MBER) neural network equalisers for binary signalling. Motivated from a kernel density estimation of the bit error rate (BER) as a smooth function of training data, a stochastic gradient algorithm called the least bit error rate (LBER) is developed for adaptive nonlinear equalisers. This LBER algorithm is applied to adaptive training of a radial basis function (RBF) equaliser in a channel intersymbol interference (ISI) plus co-channel interference setting. A simulation study shows that the proposed algorithm has good convergence speed, and a small-size RBF equaliser trained by the LBER can closely approximate the performance of the optimal Bayesian equaliser. The results also demonstrate that the standard adaptive algorithm, the least mean square (LMS), performs poorly for neural network equalisers, because the minimum mean square error (MMSE) is clearly suboptimal in the equalisation setting.