Techniques for extracting the characteristic response of a non-linear channel are presented. In various implementations of the invention, a channel's characteristic response may be determined by identifying a first input sequence, determining the ones compliment of the first input sequence and then determining the response of the channel to these two input sequences. Subsequently, two input matrices and two response matrices may be generated based upon the two input sequences and their corresponding responses. Given these four matrices, a symmetrical response component may be determined by iteratively solving a system of equations formed from the columns of each matrix. Subsequently, given the symmetric component and these four matrices, an asymmetrical response component may be determined by again iteratively solving the system of equations for the columns of each matrix.