Joint equalization and decoding with per-survivor processing based on super-trellis in time-varying underwater acoustic channels.

This Letter proposes a low-complexity joint equalization and decoding reception scheme based on super-trellis per-survivor processing, making it possible to apply maximum likelihood sequence estimation in high-order underwater acoustic communications under fast time-varying channels. The technique combines trellis-coded modulation states and intersymbol interference states and uses per-survivor processing to track channel parameters. Furthermore, a general trellis configuration for arbitrary order quadrature amplitude modulation signal is provided when truncate the channel is used to describe the intersymbol interference state to 1. Sea trials results show that the performance of proposed method can be more than 1.4 dB superiority than conventional schemes.