Joint equalization and decoding for nonlinear two-dimensional intersymbol interference channels

An algorithm that performs joint equalization and decoding for channels with nonlinear two-dimensional intersymbol interference is presented. The algorithm performs sum-product message-passing on a factor graph that represents the underlying system. The two-dimensional optical storage (Two-DOS) technology is an example of a system with nonlinear two-dimensional intersymbol interference. Simulations for the nonlinear channel model of TwoDOS show significant improvement in performance over uncoded performance. Noise tolerance thresholds for the TwoDOS channel computed using density evolution are also presented