Iterative equaliser and decoder

The present invention relates generally to the field of mobile communications systems and particularly to an apparatus for iterative equalising and decoding coded data of these systems. Iterative equalisation and decoding has the basic idea of using a maximum a posteriori (MAP) detector, which is able to accept not only channel values but also a priori information about the symbols to be detected. If existing systems should be upgraded to iterative equalisation and decoding to provide higher reception sensitivity, the structure of these systems has to be changed significantly. The present invention avoids this problem by using a separate set of equaliser and decoder on a separate hardware for iterative equalising and decoding allowing flexible design of the BTS on higher sensitivity reception demands.