A receiver for discrete Fourier transform-spread-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM) based systems, including a prefilter for received signal codeword(s); and a log-likelihood ratio LLR module responsive to the prefilter; wherein the prefilter includes a pairing and whitening module that based on channel estimates and data rate enables the LLR module to perform either a Serial-In-Serial-Out (SISO) based log likelihood ratio processing of an output from the paring and whitening module or a two-symbol max-log soft output demodulator (MLSD) based log likelihood ratio processing of an output from the pairing and whitening module.