Performance Evaluation of Machine Learning-Based Channel Equalization Techniques: New Trends and Challenges

Wireless communication systems have evolved and offered more smart and advanced systems like ad hoc and sensor-based infrastructure fewer networks. These networks are evaluated with two fundamental parameters including data rate and spectral efficiency. To achieve a high data rate and robust wireless communication, the most significant task is channel equalization at the receiver side. The transmitted data symbols when passing through the wireless channel suffer from various types of impairments, such as fading, Doppler shifts, and Intersymbol Interference (ISI), and degraded the overall network performance. To mitigate channel-related impairments, many channel equalization algorithms have been proposed for communication systems. The channel equalization problem can also be solved as a classification problem by using Machine Learning (ML) methods. In this paper, channel equalization is performed by using ML techniques in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER) analysis and comparison. Radial Basis Functions (RBFs), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Functional Link Artificial Neural Network (FLANN), Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM), and Polynomial-based Neural Networks (NNs) are adopted for channel equalization.

Study of the Performance of Deep Learning-Based Channel Equalization for Indoor Visible Light Communication Systems

The inherent impairments of visible light communication (VLC) in terms of nonlinearity of light-emitting diode (LED) and the optical multipath restrict bit error rate (BER) performance. In this paper, a model-driven deep learning (DL) equalization scheme is proposed to deal with the severe channel impairments. By imitating the block-by-block signal processing block in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication, the proposed scheme employs two subnets to replace the signal demodulation module in traditional system for learning the channel nonlinearity and the symbol de-mapping relationship from the training data. In addition, the conventional solution and algorithm are also incorporated into the system architecture to accelerate the convergence speed. After an efficient training, the distorted symbols can be implicitly equalized into the binary bits directly. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can address the overall channel impairments efficiently and can recover the original symbols with better BER performance. Moreover, it can still work robustly when the system is complicated by serious distortions and interference, which demonstrates the superiority and validity of the proposed scheme in channel equalization.

Numerical Study of Parallel Optoelectronic Reservoir Computing to Enhance Nonlinear Channel Equalization

Nonlinear impairment is one of the critical limits to enhancing the performance of high-speed communication systems. Traditional digital signal processing (DSP)-based nonlinear channel equalization schemes are influenced by limited bandwidth, high power consumption, and high processing latency. Optoelectronic reservoir computing (RC) is considered a promising optical signal processing (OSP) technique with merits such as large bandwidth, high power efficiency, and low training complexity. In this paper, optoelectronic RC was employed to solve the nonlinear channel equalization problem. A parallel optoelectronic RC scheme with a dual-polarization Mach–Zehnder modulator (DPol-MZM) is proposed and demonstrated numerically. The nonlinear channel equalization performance was greatly enhanced compared with the traditional optoelectronic RC and the Volterra-based nonlinear DSP schemes. In addition, the system efficiency was improved with a single DPol-MZM.