A novel efficient cluster-based MLSE equalizer for satellite communication channels with M-QAM signaling

In satellites, nonlinear amplifiers used near saturation severely distort the transmitted signal and cause difficulties in its reception. Nevertheless, the nonlinearities introduced by memoryless bandpass amplifiers preserve the symmetries of the M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) constellation. In this paper, a cluster-based sequence equalizer (CBSE) that takes advantage of these symmetries is presented. The proposed equalizer exhibits enhanced performance compared to other techniques, including the conventional linear transversal equalizer, Volterra equalizers, and RBF network equalizers. Moreover, this gain in performance is obtained at a substantially lower computational cost.