1. A method for processing data received from a communications channel comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving, from the communications channel, received data that is based upon both modulated data and distortion introduced by the communications channel, wherein the modulated data is the result of original data modulated onto one or more carriers; generating sampled data by sampling the received data at a specified rate that satisfies specified sampling criteria; generating a filtered observation sequence by processing the sampled data; generating estimated modulated data by processing the filtered observation sequence using a recursive filter; and recovering an estimate of the original data by demodulating the estimated modulated data.