System and method for linear distortion estimation by way of equalizer coefficients

1. A method for estimating channel distortion in a communications system channel including an adaptive equalizer, comprising:

determining one or more adaptive filter coefficients associated with a signal by the adaptive equalizer;

normalizing the determined one or more adaptive filter coefficients to unity power;

differencing the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients with an all-pass filter, the differencing including a difference between an equalizer main tap coefficient and unity; and

estimating the channel distortion based upon the differencing of the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients including the equalizer main tap coefficient.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the channel distortion includes at least one of linear filtering distortion, signal power to distortion power ratio, modulation error ratio, and signal to noise ratio.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the communications system channel is a transmit channel.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the communications system channel is a receive channel.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating a frequency response of the determined one or more adaptive filter coefficients; and

applying corrections to the frequency response,

wherein the applying corrections step occurs prior to estimating the channel distortion.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the frequency response is determined in accordance with a fast Fourier transform operation.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the corrections include adjustments to amplitude and phase of the frequency response.

8. A method for estimating noise in a communications channel including an adaptive equalizer, comprising:

determining one or more adaptive filter coefficients h 1 (n) associated with a signal by the adaptive equalizer;

normalizing the determined one or more adaptive filter coefficients to unit energy; and

differencing the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients with an ideal response h 0 (n) of the communications channel, the differencing producing an error sequence h 2 (n).

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining an energy of the error sequence.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

converting the error sequence to frequency domain, the converting producing a frequency response H 2 (k) of the error sequence; and

removing a delay offset of the frequency response to produce a delayed offset response H 3 (k).

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

(i) summing the delayed offset response and an ideal channel frequency response and (ii) inverting the sum to produce an inverted response H 4 (k);

normalizing the inverted response to unit power, thus producing a normalized response H 5 (k); and

removing a phase offset from the normalized inverted response, the removing producing an estimated channel response H 6 (k).

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

differencing the estimated channel response H 6 (k) with the ideal channel frequency response, the differencing producing an error filter response H 7 (k); and

determining an error power of the difference.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the converting is based upon a fast Fourier transform of the error sequence.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the converting is based upon (i) padding the error sequence with zeros and (ii) applying a fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the padded error sequence.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the FFT includes at least 4096 samples.

16. A method for estimating noise in a communications channel including an adaptive equalizer, comprising:

receiving data within the communications channel and converging taps of the adaptive equalizer when the data is received;

determining a sum of tap power values, the sum including a power of a main tap and dividing the sum by a combined power of all the taps;

normalizing the taps to unity power;

determining a difference filter from the normalized taps; and

summing a power of taps of the difference filter.

17. An apparatus for estimating channel distortion in a communications system channel including an adaptive equalizer, comprising:

means for determining one or more adaptive filter coefficients associated with a signal by the adaptive equalizer;

means for normalizing the determined one or more adaptive filter coefficients to unity power;

means for differencing the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients with an all-pass filter, the differencing including a difference between an equalizer main tap coefficient and unity; and

means for estimating the channel distortion based upon the differencing of the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients including the equalizer main tap coefficient.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the channel distortion includes at least one of linear filtering distortion, signal power to distortion power ratio, modulation error ratio, and signal to noise ratio.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising means for calculating a frequency response of the determined one or more adaptive filter coefficients; and

means for applying corrections to the frequency response.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the frequency response is determined in accordance with a fast Fourier transform operation.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the corrections include adjustments to amplitude and phase of the frequency response.

22. An apparatus for estimating noise in a communications channel including an adaptive equalizer, comprising:

means for determining one or more adaptive filter coefficients h 1 (n) associated with a signal by the adaptive equalizer;

means for normalizing the determined one or more adaptive filter coefficients to unit energy; and

means for differencing the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients with an ideal response h 0 (n) of the communications channel, the differencing producing an error sequence h 2 (n).

23. The apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising means for determining an energy of the error sequence.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 , further comprising:

means for converting the error sequence to frequency domain, the converting producing a frequency response H 2 (k) of the error sequence; and

means for removing a delay offset of the frequency response to produce a delayed offset response H 3 (k).

25. The apparatus of claim 24 , further comprising:

means for (i) summing the delayed offset response and an ideal channel frequency response and (ii) inverting the sum to produce an inverted response H 4 (k);

means for normalizing the inverted response to unit power, thus producing a normalized response H 5 (k); and

means for removing a phase offset from the normalized inverted response, the removing producing an estimated channel response H 6 (k).

26. The apparatus of claim 25 , further comprising:

means for differencing the estimated channel response H 6 (k) with the ideal channel frequency response, the differencing producing an error filter response H 7 (k); and

means for determining an error power of the difference.

27. A computer readable medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform a method for estimating channel distortion in a communications system channel including an adaptive equalizer, the instructions when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

determining one or more adaptive filter coefficients associated with a signal by the adaptive equalizer;

normalizing the determined one or more adaptive filter coefficients to unity power;

differencing the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients with an all-pass filter, the differencing including a difference between a normalized equalizer main tap coefficient and unity; and

estimating un-equalized channel distortion based upon the differencing of the normalized one or more adaptive filter coefficients including the equalizer main tap coefficient.