Computationally efficient design of the MAE equalizer for binary signaling

This paper proposes a computationally efficient approach to designing the maximum asymptotic efficiency (MAE) equalizer, which minimizes bit error rate as the signal-to-noise ratio approaches infinity. The MAE equalizer is implemented as a tapped delay line and hence has the same runtime complexity as the simple MMSE linear equalizer. However, design of the MAE equalizer involves finding the minimum distance between two convex hulls. Its design complexity is exponential in the length of channel and equalizer, making it impractical for long channels. The proposed method exploits the relationship between the channel vectors and the convex hull formed by the noise-free channel outputs to design the MAE equalizer directly from the channel coefficients without requiring a search of the convex hull. The equalizer design complexity is reduced to O(N logN), where N is determined by the length of the channel and equalizer. Simulation results reveal the dramatic decrease in design complexity.