Receiver Structure for Saturating Channels

A Maximum Likelihood receiver for binary phase-shift keyed signals is derived for the case when the channel includes a bandpass nonlinearity preceded and followed by sources of additive noise. This optimum receiver is then approximated for the case of a limitertype of channel and is seen to be a nonlinear function of both pre- and post-limiter signal to noise ratios and a normalized limiter softness factor λ^*. The probability of error for this receiver is evaluated for the case of a large time-bandwidth product using a central limit theorem argument.