Performance of adaptive equalization and soft-decision decoding techniques over TDMA digital cellular radio channels

The performances of two equalization and soft-decision decoding techniques for transmission over the proposed Telecommunications Industry Association North American TDMA digital cellular radio channels are studied. Simulation results indicate that the maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) equalizer´s performance is slightly better than that of the decision feedback equalizer (DFE). Both equalizer´s are about 3-4 dB away from optimal performance at vehicle speeds of 60 mph and are 6-7 dB lower than called for in the IS-54 specification. The results also show that for both techniques, soft decisions provide a decoded bit error rate (BER) of 1% with 2 dB less power than that required for hard decisions