NeuralEQ: Neural-Network-Based Equalizer for High-Speed Wireline Communication

Abstract: With the growing demand for high-bandwidth applications like video streaming and cloud services, the data transfer rates required for wireline communication keeps increasing, making the channel loss a major obstacle in achieving low bit error rate (BER). Equalization techniques such as feed-forward equalizer (FFE) and decision feedback equalizer (DFE) are commonly used to compensate for channel loss in wireline communication, but they have limitations in terms of noise boosting and timing constraints. On the other hand, the forward-backward algorithm can achieve better BER performance, but its high complexity makes it impractical for wireline communication. In this work, we propose a novel neural network, NeuralEQ, that effectively mimics the forward-backward algorithm and performs better than FFE and DFE while reducing complexity of the forward-backward algorithm. Performance of NeuralEQ is verified through simulations using real channels.