Channel Estimation For Wireless OFDM Communications: Jia-Chin Lin
Channel Estimation For Wireless OFDM Communications: Jia-Chin Lin
Channel Estimation For Wireless OFDM Communications: Jia-Chin Lin
1. Introduction
1.1 Preliminary
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) communication techniques have
recently received significant research attention because of their ability to maintain effective
transmission and highly efficient bandwidth utilization in the presence of various channel
impairments, such as severely frequency-selective channel fades caused by long multipath
delay spreads and impulsive noise (Bingham, 1990; Zou & Wu, 1995). In an OFDM system, a
high-rate serial information-bearing symbol stream is split into many low-rate parallel
streams; each of these streams individually modulates a mutually orthogonal sub-carrier.
The spectrum of an individual sub-channel overlaps with those expanded from the adjacent
sub-channels. However, the OFDM sub-carriers are orthogonal as long as they are
synthesized such that the frequency separation between any two adjacent sub-carriers is
exactly equal to the reciprocal of an OFDM block duration. A discrete Fourier transform
(DFT) operation can perfectly produce this sub-carrier arrangement and its relevant
modulations (Darlington, 1970; Weinstein & Ebert, 1971). Because of the advanced
technologies incorporated into integrated circuit (IC) chips and digital signal processors
(DSPs), OFDM has become a practical way to implement very effective modulation
techniques for various applications. As a result, OFDM technologies have recently been
chosen as candidates for 4th-generation (4G) mobile communications in a variety of
standards, such as IEEE 802.16 (Marks, 2008) and IEEE 802.20 (Klerer, 2005) in the United
States, and international research projects, such as EU-IST-MATRICE (MATRICE, 2005) and
EU-IST-4MORE (4MORE, 2005) for 4G mobile communication standardization in Europe.
Regarding the history of OFDM, recall that Chang published a paper on the synthesis of
band-limited signals for parallel multi-channel transmission in the 1960s (Chang, 1966). The
author investigated a technique for transmitting and receiving (transceiving) parallel
information through a linear band-limited channel without inter-channel interference (ICI)
or inter-symbol interference (ISI). Saltzberg then conducted relevant performance
evaluations and analyses (Saltzberg, 1967).
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18 Communications and Networking
1.4 Applications
OFDM technology is currently employed in the European digital audio broadcasting (DAB)
standard (DAB, 1995). In addition, digital TV broadcasting applications based on OFDM
technology have been under comprehensive investigation (DVB, 1996; Couasnon et al., 1994;
Marti et al., 1993; Moeneclaey & Bladel, 1993; Tourtier et al., 1993). Furthermore, OFDM
technology in conjunction with other multiple-access techniques, in particular code-division
multiple-access (CDMA) techniques, for mobile communications has also been the focus of a
variety of research efforts (Hara & Prasad, 1997; Sourour & Nakagawa, 1996; Kondo &
Milstein, 1996; Reiners & Rohling, 1994; Fazel, 1994). For those employed in wireline
environments, OFDM communication systems are often called “Discrete Multi-Tone”
(DMT) communications, which have also attracted a great deal of research attention as a
technology that effectively achieves high-rate transmission on currently existing telephone
networks (Bingham, 1990; Young et al., 1996; Chow, 1993; Tu, 1991). One of the major
advantages of the OFDM technique is its robustness with multipath reception. OFDM
applications often are expected to operate in a severely frequency-selective environment.
Therefore, OFDM communication has recently been selected for various broadband mobile
communications, e.g., 4G mobile communications. This chapter will focus on such
applications.
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 19
Duplicate
Cyclic
prefix
Time
Axis
GI or CP OFDM Block
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20 Communications and Networking
⎧ 1 j 2π NB k(t −Tg )
⎪ 0 ≤ t ≤ Tsym
pk (t ) = ⎨ T
e
⎪0
(1)
⎩ otherwise,
where Tsym = T + Tg. Note that pk(t) = pk(t+ T) when t is within the guard interval [0,Tg]. It can
be seen from Equation 1 that pk(t) is a rectangular pulse modulated by a sub-carrier with
B . The transmitted signal s (t) for the ith OFDM symbol can thus be obtained
frequency k · N i
by summing over all modulated signals, i.e.,
∑ X k ,i pk ( t − iTsym ),
N −1
si (t ) = (2)
k =0
where X0,i,X1,i, ··· ,XN−1,i are complex-valued information-bearing symbols, whose values are
often mapped according to quaternary phase-shift keying (QPSK) or quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM). Therefore, the transmitted signal s(t) can be considered to be a sequence
of OFDM symbols, i.e.,
∑ si (t )
∞
s(t ) =
( )
i =−∞
∑ ∑ Xk ,i pk t − iTsym .
∞ N −1
(3)
=
i =−∞ k = 0
Transmitting Receiving
Filter Bank Filter Bank
X0,i p1 ( t ) q1 ( t ) Y0,i
Tsym
w( t)
p2 ( t ) q2 ( t ) Y1,i
X1,i
s( t) r ( t) Tsym
h ( τ , t)
Multipath Channel
X N − 1,i p N − 1 ( t) YN − 1,i
q N − 1 ( t)
Tsym
Sampler
r (t ) = ( h ∗ s ) (t ) + w(t )
where the operator “∗” represents the linear convolution and w(t) is an AWGN.
At the receiving end, a bank of filters is employed to match the last part [Tg,Tsym] of the
transmitted waveforms pk(t) on a subchannel-by-subchannel basis. By taking advantage of
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 21
matched filter (MF) theory, the receiving filter on the kth sub-channel can be designed to
( )
have the following impulse response:
⎪⎧ p T − t , 0 ≤ t < T = Tsym − Tg
∗
q k (t ) = ⎨ k sym
⎪⎩ 0,
(5)
otherwise.
Because the CP can effectively separate symbol dispersion from preceding or succeeding
symbols, the sampled outputs of the receiving filter bank convey negligible ISI. The time
index i can be dropped for simplicity because the following derivations address the received
signals on a symbol-by-symbol basis and the ISI is considered to be negligible. Using
Equations 3, 4 and 5, the sampled output of the kth receiving MF can be written as
= ( r ∗ q k ) (t )
t =Tsym
Yk
∫ r(ς )q k (Tsym − ς ) dς
∞
=
−∞
Tsym ⎛ Tg ⎞
⎜ h (τ , t ) s (ς − τ ) dτ + w(ς ) ⎟ p∗ (ς )dς
= ∫ ⎜∫
(6)
Tg ⎝ 0
⎟ k
⎠
Tsym ⎛ Tg
⎤ ⎞
= ∫ ⎜ ∫ h (τ , t ) ⎢ ∑ X l pl (ς − τ ) ⎥ dτ ⎟ p∗k (ς )dς + ∫ w(ς ) p∗k (ς )dς .
⎡N −1
Tsym
⎜
Tg ⎝ 0 ⎣ l=0 ⎦ ⎟⎠ Tg
few OFDM symbols. Therefore, the CIR can be further represented as h(τ). Equation 6 can
It is assumed that although the CIR is time-varying, it does not significantly change within a
thus be rewritten as
Tsym ⎛ Tg ⎞
∑ Xl ∫ ⎜ ∫0 ∫ w(ς )pk (ς )dς .
N −1
Yk = ⎜ h(τ )pl (ς − τ )dτ ⎟ p∗k (ς )dς +
Tsym
∗
⎟
(7)
l =0 Tg ⎝ ⎠ Tg
From Equation 7, if Tg < ς < Tsym and 0 < τ < Tg, then 0 < ς − τ < Tsym. Therefore, by
substituting Equation 1 into Equation 7, the inner-most integral of Equation 7 can be
reformulated as
∫ h(τ )pl (ς − τ ) dτ
j 2π l(ς −τ −Tg ) B/N
= ∫ h(τ ) dτ
Tg Tg
e
0 0 T
j 2π l(ς −Tg ) B/N Tg
∫ h(τ )e
(8)
= − j 2π lτ B/N
dτ , Tg < ς < Tsym .
e
T 0
Furthermore, the integration in Equation 8 can be considered to be the channel weight of the
lth sub-channel, whose sub-carrier frequency is f = lB/N, i.e.,
∫ h(τ )e
⎛ B⎞
Hl = H ⎜ l ⎟ = − j 2π lτ B/N
dτ ,
Tg
⎝ N⎠
(9)
0
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22 Communications and Networking
∑ Xl
j 2π l(ς −Tg ) B/N
∫ ∫
N −1
= H l p∗k (ς )dς + w(ς )p∗k (ς )dς
Tsym Tsym
e
Yk
l =0 Tg T Tg
∑ Xl H l ∫
(10)
N −1
= pl (ς )p∗k (ς )dς + Wk ,
Tsym
l =0 Tg
where
The transmitting filters pk(t), k = 0,1, ··· ,N − 1 employed here are mutually orthogonal, i.e.,
∫ = ∫
Tsym Tsym
pl (t )p∗k (t )dt
e e
dt
T T (11)
= δ [ k − l ],
Tg Tg
where
⎧1 k=l
δ [ k − l] = ⎨
⎩0 otherwise
Yk = H k X k + Wk , k = 0,1,A , N − 1, (12)
where Wk is the AWGN of the kth sub-channel. As a result, the OFDM communication
system can be considered to be a set of parallel frequency-flat (frequency-nonselective)
fading sub-channels with uncorrelated noise, as depicted in Fig. 3.
H0,i W0,i
X0,i Y0,i
H1,i
W1,i
X1,i Y1,i
HN − 1,i WN − 1,i
X N − 1,i YN − 1,i
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 23
X0,i Y0,i
w[n ]
X1,i Y1,i
Cyclic Cyclic
s[n ] r [n ]
IDFT P/S Prefix h[m, n ] Prefix S/P DFT
Insertion Removal
X N − 1,i YN − 1,i
{
= DFTN IDFTN {X i } ⊗ hi + w i }
= DFTN {IDFTN {X i } ⊗ hi } + Wi ,
Yi
(13)
where Yi = [Y0,i Y1,i ··· YN−1,i]T is an N × 1 vector, and its elements represent N demodulated
symbols; Xi = [X0,i X1,i ··· XN−1,i]T is an N × 1 vector, and its elements represent N
transmitted information-bearing symbols; hi = [h0,i h1,i ··· hN−1,i]T is an N × 1 vector, and its
elements represent the CIR padded with sufficient zeros to have N dimensions; and
wi = [w0,i w1,i ··· wN−1,i]T is an N × 1 vector representing noise. Because the noise is assumed to
be white, Gaussian and circularly symmetric, the noise term
Wi = DFTN ( w i ) (14)
represents uncorrelated Gaussian noise, and Wk,i and wn,i can be proven to have the same
variance according to the Central Limit Theorem (CLT). Furthermore, if a new operator ”☼”
is defined to be element-by-element multiplication, Equation 13 can be rewritten as
Yi = X i Y DFTN {hi } + Wi
= X i Y Hi + Wi ,
(15)
where Hi = DFTN {hi} is the CTF. As a result, the same set of parallel frequency-flat sub-
channels with noise as presented in the continuous-time model can be obtained.
Both the aforementioned continuous-time and discrete-time representations provide insight
and serve the purpose of providing a friendly first step or entrance point for beginning
readers. In my personal opinion, researchers that have more experience in communication
fields may be more comfortable with the continuous-time model because summations,
integrations and convolutions are employed in the modulation, demodulation and (CIR)
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24 Communications and Networking
filtering processes. Meanwhile, researchers that have more experience in signal processing
fields may be more comfortable with the discrete-time model because vector and matrix
operations are employed in the modulation, demodulation and (CIR) filtering processes.
Although the discrete-time model may look neat, clear and reader-friendly, several
presumptions should be noted and kept in mind. It is assumed that the symbol shaping is
rectangular and that the frequency offset, ISI and ICI are negligible. The primary goal of this
chapter is to highlight concepts and provide insight to beginning researchers and practical
engineers rather than covering theories or theorems. As a result, the derivations shown in
Sections 3 and 4 are close to the continuous-time representation, and those in Sections 5 and
6 are derived from the discrete-time representation.
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 25
Subcarrier Index
Subcarrier Index
2.2 CTPA-based CE
Conventional CEs assisted by comb-type pilot sub-channels are often performed completely
in the frequency domain (FD) and include two steps: jointly estimating the channel gains on
all pilot sub-channels and smoothing the obtained estimates to interpolate the channel gains
on data (non-pilot) sub-channels. The CTPA CE technique (Hsieh & Wei, 1998) and the
pilot-symbol-assisted modulation (PSAM) CE technique (Edfors et al., 1998) have been
shown to be practical and applicable methods for mobile OFDM communication because
their ability to track rapidly time-varying channels is much better than that of a BTPA CE
technique. Several modified variants for further improvements and for complexity or rank
reduction by means of singular-value-decomposition (SVD) techniques have been
investigated previously (Hsieh & Wei, 1998; Edfors et al., 1998; Seller, 2004; Edfors et al.,
1996; Van de Beek et al., 1995; Park et al., 2004). In addition, a more recent study has
proposed improving CE performance by taking advantage of presumed slowly varying
properties in the delay subspace (Simeone et al., 2004). This technique employs an
intermediate step between the LS pilot sub-channel estimation step and the data sub-
channel interpolation step in conventional CE approaches (Hsieh & Wei, 1998; Edfors et al.,
1998; Seller, 2004; Edfors et al., 1996; Van de Beek et al., 1995; Park et al., 2004) to track the
delay subspace to improve the accuracy of the pilot sub-channel estimation. However, this
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26 Communications and Networking
technique is based on the strong assumption that the multipath delays are slowly time-
varying and can easily be estimated separately from the channel gain estimation. A prior
channel estimation study (Minn & Bhargava, 2000) also exploited CTPA and TD CE. The
proposed technique (Minn & Bhargava, 2000) was called the Frequency-Pilot-Time-Average
(FPTA) method. However, time-averaging over a period that may be longer than the
coherence time of wireless channels to suppress interference not only cannot work for
wireless applications with real-time requirements but may also be impractical in a mobile
channel with a short coherence time. A very successful technique that takes advantage of TD
CE has been proposed (Minn & Bhargava, 1999). However, this technique focused on
parameter estimation to transmit diversity using space-time coding in OFDM systems, and
the parameter settings were not obtained from any recent mobile communication standards.
To make fair comparisons of the CE performance and to avoid various diversity or space-
time coding methods, only uncoded OFDM with no diversity is addressed in this chapter.
The CTPA is also employed as the framework of the technique studied in Sections 3 and 4
because of its effectiveness in mobile OFDM communications with rapidly time-varying,
frequency-selective fading channels. A least-squares estimation (LSE) approach is
performed serially on a block-by-block basis in the TD, not only to accurately estimate the
CIR but also to effectively track rapid CIR variations. In fact, a generic estimator is thus
executed on each OFDM block without assistance from a priori channel information (e.g.,
correlation functions in the frequency and/or in the time directions) and without increasing
computational complexity.
Many previous studies (Edfors et al., 1998; Seller, 2004; Edfors et al., 1996; Van de Beek et al.,
1995; Simeone et al., 2004) based on CTPA were derived under the assumption of perfect
timing synchronization. In practice, some residual timing error within several sampling
durations inevitably occurs during DFT demodulation, and this timing error leads to extra
phase errors that phase-rotate demodulated symbols. Although a method that solves this
problem in conventional CTPA OFDM CEs has been studied (Hsieh & Wei, 1998; Park et al.,
2004), this method can work only under some special conditions (Hsieh & Wei, 1998).
Compared with previous studies (Edfors et al., 1998; Seller, 2004; Edfors et al., 1996; Van de
Beek et al., 1995; Simeone et al., 2004), the studied technique can be shown to achieve better
resistance to residual timing errors because it does not employ a priori channel information
and thus avoids the model mismatch and extra phase rotation problems that result from
residual timing errors. Also, because the studied technique performs ideal data sub-channel
interpolation with a domain-transformation approach, it can effectively track extra phase
rotations with no phase lag.
2.3 BTPA-based CE
Single-carrier frequency-division multiple-access (SC-FDMA) communication was selected
for the long-term evolution (LTE) specification in the third-generation partnership project
(3GPP). SC-FDMA has been the focus of research and development because of its ability to
maintain a low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), particularly in the uplink transmission,
which is one of a few problems in recent 4G mobile communication standardization.
Meanwhile, SC-FDMA can maintain high throughput and low equalization complexity like
orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) (Myung et al., 2006). Moreover,
SC-FDMA can be thought of as an OFDMA with DFT pre-coded or pre-spread inputs. In a
SC-FDMA uplink scenario, information-bearing symbols in the TD from any individual user
terminal are pre-coded (or pre-spread) with a DFT. The DFT-spread resultant symbols can
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 27
be transformed into the FD. Finally, the DFT-spread symbols are fed into an IDFT
multiplexer to accomplish FDM.
Although the CTPA is commonly adopted in wireless communication applications, such as
IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.16e and the EU-IST-4MORE project, the BTPA is
employed in the LTE. As shown in the LTE specification, 7 symbols form a slot, and 20 slots
form a frame that spans 10 ms in the LTE uplink transmission. In each slot, the 4th symbol is
used to transmit a pilot symbol. Section 5 employs BTPA as the framework to completely
follow the LTE specifications. A modified Kalman filter- (MKF-) based TD CE approach
with fast fading channels has been proposed previously (Han et al., 2004). The MKF-based
TD CE tracks channel variations by taking advantage of MKF and TD MMSE equalizers. A
CE technique that also employs a Kalman filter has been proposed (Li et al., 2008). Both
methods successfully address the CE with high Doppler spreads.
The demodulation reference signal adopted for CE in LTE uplink communication is
generated from Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequences. ZC sequences, which are generalized chirp-like
poly-phase sequences, have some beneficial properties according to previous studies (Ng et
al., 1998; Popovic, 1992). ZC sequences are also commonly used in radar applications and as
synchronization signals in LTE, e.g., random access and cell search (Levanon & Mozeson,
2004; LTE, 2009). A BTPA-based CE technique is discussed in great detail in Section 5.
2.4 TD-redundancy-based CE
Although the mobile communication applications mentioned above are all based on cyclic-
prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM) modulation techniques, several encouraging contributions have
investigated some alternatives, e.g., zero-padded OFDM (ZP-OFDM) (Muquest et al., 2002;
Muquet et al., 2000) and pseudo-random-postfix OFDM (PRP-OFDM) (Muck et al., 2006;
2005; 2003) to replace the TD redundancy with null samples or known/pre-determined
sequences. It has been found that significant improvements over CP-OFDM can be realized
with either ZP-OFDM or PRP-OFDM (Muquest et al., 2002; Muquet et al., 2000; Muck et al.,
2006; 2005; 2003). In previous works, ZP-OFDM has been shown to maintain symbol
recovery irrespective of null locations on a multipath channel (Muquest et al., 2002; Muquet
et al., 2000). Meanwhile, PRP-OFDM replaces the null samples originally inserted between
any two OFDM blocks in ZP-OFDM by a known sequence. Thus, the receiver can use the a
priori knowledge of a fraction of transmitted blocks to accurately estimate the CIR and
effectively reduce the loss of transmission rate with frequent, periodic training sequences
(Muck et al., 2006; 2005; 2003). A more recent OFDM variant, called Time-Domain
Synchronous OFDM (TDS-OFDM) was investigated in terrestrial broadcasting applications
(Gui et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2008; Zheng & Sun, 2008; Liu & Zhang, 2007; Song et al., 2005).
TDS-OFDM works similarly to the PRP-OFDM and also belongs to this category of CEs
assisted by TD redundancy.
Several research efforts that address various PRP-OFDM CE and/or subsequent
equalization problems have been undertaken (Muck et al., 2006; 2005; 2003; Ma et al., 2006).
However, these studies were performed only in the context of a wireless local area network
(WLAN), in which multipath fading and Doppler effects are not as severe as in mobile
communication. In addition, the techniques studied in previous works (Muck et al., 2006;
2005; 2003; Ma et al., 2006) take advantage of a time-averaging method to replace statistical
expectation operations and to suppress various kinds of interference, including inter-block
interference (IBI) and ISI. However, these moving-average-based interference suppression
methods investigated in the previous studies (Muck et al., 2006; 2005; 2003; Ma et al., 2006)
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28 Communications and Networking
cannot function in the mobile environment because of rapid channel variation and real-time
requirements. In fact, it is difficult to design an effective moving-average filter (or an
integrate-and-dump (I/D) filter) for the previous studies (Muck et al., 2006; 2005; 2003; Ma
et al., 2006) because the moving-average filter must have a sufficiently short time-averaging
duration (i.e., sufficiently short I/D filter impulse response) to accommodate both the time-
variant behaviors of channel tap-weighting coefficients and to keep the a priori statistics of
the PRP unchanged for effective CE and must also have a sufficiently long time-averaging
duration (i.e., sufficiently long I/D filter impulse response) to effectively suppress various
kinds of interference and reduce AWGN.
A previous work (Ohno & Giannakis, 2002) investigated an optimum training pattern for
generic block transmission over time-frequency selective channels. It has been proven that
the TD training sequences must be placed with equal spacing to minimize mean-square
errors. However, the work (Ohno & Giannakis, 2002) was still in the context of WLAN and
broadcasting applications, and no symbol recovery method was studied. As shown in
Section 6, the self-interference that occurs with symbol recovery and signal detection must
be further eliminated by means of the SIC method.
∑ X k e j 2π kn/N ,
N −1
xn = n = 0,1,A , N − 1,
1
(16)
N k =0
where N is the number of sub-channels. In the above equation, it is assumed that there are
no virtual sub-carriers, which provide guard bands, in the studied OFDM system. A CP is
arranged in front of an OFDM symbol to avoid ISI and ICI, and the resultant symbol
{xcp,n, n = −L,−L+ 1, ··· ,N −1} can thus be expressed as
⎧x n = −L , −L + 1,A , −1
xcp , n = ⎨ N + n
⎩ xn n = 0,1,A , N − 1,
(17)
where L denotes the number of CP samples. The transmitted signal is then fed into a
multipath fading channel with CIR h[m,n]. The received signal can thus be represented as
where w[n] denotes the AWGN. The CIR h[m,n] can be expressed as (Steele, 1999)
∑ α i e j 2π ν nT δ [mTs − τ i ],
M −1
h[m , n] = i s
(19)
i =0
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 29
where M denotes the number of resolvable propagation paths, αi represents the ith complex
channel weight of the CIR, νi denotes the maximum Doppler frequency on the ith resolvable
propagation path, m is the index in the delay domain, n is the time index, and τi denotes the
delay of the ith resolvable path.
Xk xn xcp,n
Signal
Pilot D/A
Mapping
Bit S/P IFFT CP P/S +
with Tone
Stream Gray Insertion Tx
Insertion
Encoding Filter
Channel h
Yk yn ycp,n
w
Signal
Per Rx AWGN
Demapping Sub
Bit CP Filter
with P/S Channel FFT S/P
Stream Gray Removal +
Equalizer A/D
Decoding
Fig. 6. A base-band equivalent block diagram of the studied OFDM transceiver.
After the CP portion is effectively removed from ycp,n, the received samples yn are sifted and
fed into the DFT demodulator to simultaneously demodulate the signals propagating
through the multiple sub-channels. The demodulated symbol obtained on the kth sub-
channel can thus be written as
∑ yn e− j 2π kn/N ,
N −1
Yk = k = 0,1,A , N − 1.
1
(20)
N n=0
If the CP is sufficiently longer than the CIR, then the ISI among OFDM symbols can be
neglected. Therefore, Yk can be reformulated as (Zhao & Huang, 1997; Hsieh & Wei, 1998)
Yk = X k H k + I k + Wk , k = 0,1,A , N − 1, (21)
where
sin (π ν iT )
∑ α i e jπ νiT
M −1 2πτ i
−j
= N
π ν iT
k
Hk e N ,
i =0
∑ αi ∑
2πτ i
1 − e j 2π ( ν iT + k − k )
M −1 N −1 ′ −j k′
= X ( k ′) k = 0,1,A , N − 1
(22)
1
2π
Ik e N ,
′= ( ν iT + k ′ − k )
1−e
N i =0 k 0 j
k ′≠ k
N
and {Wk, k = 0,1, ··· , N − 1} is the Fourier transform of {wn, n = 0,1, ··· , N − 1}.
The symbols {Yp,k} received on the pilot sub-channels can be obtained from {Yk, k = 0, 1, ··· ,
N − 1}, the channel weights on the pilot sub-channels {Hp,k} can be estimated, and then the
channel weights on the data (non-pilot) sub-channels can be obtained by interpolating or
smoothing the obtained estimates of the pilot sub-channel weights Hp,k. The transmitted
information-bearing symbols {Xk, k=0, 1, ··· , N−1} can be recovered by simply dividing the
received symbols by the corresponding channel weights, i.e.,
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30 Communications and Networking
Xˆ k = k , k = 0,1,A , N − 1,
Y
(22)
Hˆ k
where Hˆ k is an estimate of Hk. Eventually, the source binary data may be reconstructed by
means of signal demapping.
sets a lower bound on the pilot density ρ that allows the CTF to be effectively reconstructed
maintain sufficiently high bandwidth efficiency. However, the Nyquist sampling criterion
with a subcarrier-domain (i.e., FD) interpolation approach. The OFDM symbol transmitted
over the kth sub-channel can thus be expressed as
Xk = XmQ + l
⎧⎪ X p , m , l = 0,
=⎨
(23)
⎪⎩information, l = 1, 2,A , Q − 1.
The pilot signals {Xp,m, m = 0, 1, ··· , Np − 1} can either be a common complex value or sifted
from a pseudo-random sequence.
The channel weights on the pilot sub-channels can be written in vector form, i.e.,
(( ) )
T
Hp
= ⎡ H (0) H (Q ) A H N p − 1 Q ⎤ .
T (24)
⎣⎢ ⎥⎦
The received symbols on the pilot sub-channels obtained after the FFT demodulation can be
expressed as
Yp = ⎡Yp ,0 Yp ,1 A Yp , N p − 1 ⎤ .
⎣ ⎦
T
(25)
Yp = X p ⋅ H p + I p + Wp , (26)
where
⎡ X p (0) ⎤
⎢ ⎥
0
Xp = ⎢ D ⎥,
⎢ 0 X p ( N p − 1)⎥⎦
⎣
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 31
Ip denotes the ICI vector and Wp denotes the AWGN of the pilot sub-channels.
In conventional CTPA-based CE methods, the estimates of the channel weights of the pilot
sub-channels can be obtained by means of the LS CE, i.e.,
( )
HLS
−1
= XH
p Xp p Yp = X p Yp
XH −1
(27)
⎡ Yp (0) Yp (1) Yp ( N p − 1) ⎤
T
=⎢ ⎥ .
⎢⎣ X p (0) X p (1) X p ( N p − 1) ⎥⎦
A
HLMMSE = R Hˆ R −H1 Hˆ H
ˆ
( )
ˆ LS
LS H LS p LS
−1
⎛ −1 ⎞
= R H p H p ⎜ R H p H p + σ w2 X p X H
(28)
⎟ HLS ,
⎝ ⎠
p
where HLS is the LS estimate of Hp derived in Equation 27, σ w2 is the common variance of
{ }
Wk and wn, and the covariance matrices are defined as follows:
= E H pH H
= E{H H },
RHp Hp p ,
= E{H }.
RH ˆ H
ˆ p LS
p H LS
R Hˆ ˆ Hˆ H
ˆ LS LS
LS H LS
It is observed from Equation 28 that a matrix inversion operation is involved in the MMSE
estimator, and it must be calculated symbol by symbol. This problem can be solved by using
a constant pilot, e.g., Xp,m = c, m = 0,1, ··· , Np − 1. A generic CE can be obtained by averaging
over a sufficiently long duration of transmitted symbols (Edfors et al., 1996), i.e.,
β ⎞ ˆ
−1
⎛
HLMMSE = R H p H p ⎜ R H p H p + I ⎟ H
⎝ Γ ⎠
LS , (29)
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32 Communications and Networking
Γ= β=
E{|X p , k |2 }
σ w2
where is the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and
( )
the auto-correlation matrix R H p H p and the value of the SNR are known in advance,
−1
β
RHp Hp RHpHp + Γ I only needs to be calculated once. As shown in Equation 29, the CE
requires Np complex multiplications per pilot sub-carrier. To further reduce the number of
multiplication operations, a low-rank approximation method based on singular-value
decomposition (SVD) was adopted in the previous study (Edfors et al., 1996). Initially, the
channel correlation matrix can be decomposed as
R H p H p = UΛU H , (30)
⎡Δ 0⎤ H
HSVD = U ⎢ ̶ ⎥ U HLS ,
⎣0 0⎦
(31)
λk
δk = k = 0,1,A , ̶.
λk + βΓ
, (32)
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 33
x = LS , LMMSE, SVD,
⎛ l ⎞
Hˆ LI , x , k = Hˆ LI , x ,mQ + l = ⎜ 1 − ⎟ Hˆ x ,m + Hˆ x ,m + 1 , m = 0,1,A , N p − 2,
l
⎝ Q⎠
(33)
1 ≤ l ≤ (Q − 1),
Q
where mQ < k = mQ + l < (m + 1)Q, m = ⎣ Qk ⎦, ⎣· ⎦ denotes the greatest integer less than or
equal to the argument and l is the value of k modulo Q.
where
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34 Communications and Networking
back to the sub-carrier domain, which may be called the FD in other publications. In this
approach, a high-resolution interpolation method based on zero-padding and DFT/IDFT
(Elliott, 1988) is employed. The TFDI technique can be thought of as ideal interpolation
using an ideal lowpass filter in the transform domain.
3.4 Remarks
In this section, FD CE techniques based on CTPA were studied. Pilot sub-channel estimation
techniques based on LS, LMMSE and SVD methods were studied along with data sub-
channel interpolation techniques based on LI, SOPI and TFDI. The material provided in this
section may also be found in greater detail in many prior publications (cited in this section)
for interested readers. Of course, this author strongly encourages potential readers to delve
into relevant research.
∑
K −1
xn = X|k|N e j 2π nk /N , n = 0,1,A , N − 1, N ≥ 2K ,
1
(35)
N k =− K
where X|k|N denotes the complex symbol transmitted on the |k|Nth sub-channel, N is the
IDFT size, n is the TD symbol index, k is the FD subcarrier index, 2K is the total number of
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 35
sub-channels used to transmit information and |k|N denotes the value of k modulo N. In
Equation 35, Nv = N − 2K sub-carriers are appended in the high-frequency bands as virtual
sub-carriers and can be considered to be guard bands that avoid interference from other
applications in adjacent bands and are not employed to deliver any information. It should
be noted that xn and Xk form an N-point DFT pair, i.e., DFTN {xn, n = 0,1, ··· ,N − 1} = {X0,X1,
··· ,XK−1,0,0, ··· ,0,XN−K,XN−K+1, ··· ,XN−1}, where the 0s denote the symbols transmitted via the
virtual sub-channels. In a CTPA OFDM system, the symbols transmitted on the sub-
channels can be expressed in vector form for simplicity:
X = {X k } ∈ C N × 1 , (36)
where
⎧ 0, k ∈ ζ v = {K , K + 1,A , N − K − 1}
⎪⎪
X k = ⎨ Pl , k ∈ ζ p = {|( N − K ) + ( Q + 1 ) / 2 + l ⋅ Q|N|l = 0,1,A , N p − 1}
⎪
⎪⎩ Dk ′ , k ∈ζ \ζ v \ζ p ;
ζ = {0,1, ··· ,N − 1}; K = (N − Nv)/2; Pl denotes the lth pilot symbol; Np denotes the number of
the case under study; Dk’ represents the k’th information-bearing data symbol; ζv stands for
pilot sub-channels; Q denotes the pilot sub-channel separation, which is an odd number in
the set of indices of the virtual sub-channels; and ζp stands for the set of indices of the pilot
sub-channels. The OFDM block modulation can be reformulated as the following matrix
operation:
x = FI· X , (37)
where
= {xn } ∈ C N ×1 ;
= { f n , k } ∈ C N ×N ,
x
FI
⎛ 2π kn ⎞
fn,k = exp ⎜ j ⎟ , 0 ≤ k ≤ N − 1, 0 ≤ n ≤ N − 1.
1
N ⎝ N ⎠
x in Equation 37 can be rewritten as follows:
x = x + x# , (38)
where
= {x n } ∈ C N × 1 ,
( )
x
∑ Pl ⋅ exp j 2π n ( N − K ) + (Q + 1) / 2 + l ⋅ Q N / N ,
N −1
xn =
1 p
N l =0
n = 0,1,A , N − 1,
which is the TD sequence obtained from the pilot symbols modulated on the pilot sub-
channels; and
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36 Communications and Networking
x# = {x# n } ∈ C N ×1 ,
∑ Xk ⋅ exp ( j 2π nk / N ) ,
N −1
x# n = n = 0,1,A , N − 1,
1
N k =0
k∉ζ v
k∉ζ p
which is the TD sequence that results from the information-bearing QPSK symbols
modulated on the data (non-pilot) sub-channels. In accordance with the CLT, x# n , n = 0,1, ···,
N − 1 are independent, identically distributed (IID) zero-mean Gaussian random variables
N −Nv −N p 2
with variance N
σ Xk , where σ X2 k is the transmitted signal power.
After the TD signal x is obtained by conducting the IDFT modulation, a CP with length L is
inserted, and the resulting complex base-band transmitted signal s can be expressed as
s = GI ⋅ x = GI ⋅ FI ⋅ X ∈ C( N + L )×1 , (39)
where
⎡0L×( N − L ) IL ⎤
GI = ⎢ ⎥∈N
( N + L )× N
⎣⎢ ⎦⎥
,
IN
GI is the matrix for CP insertion, I is an identity matrix of the size noted in the subscript and
0 is a matrix of the size noted in the subscript whose entries are all zeros. The transmitted
signal s is fed into a parallel-to-serial (P/S) operator, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a
symbol shaping filter and finally an RF modulator for transmission. For complex base-band
h# (τ,t) = Σm’ hm’ (t) δ (τ − τm’ ), where t denotes the time parameter, hm’ (t) represents the m’th
signals, the equivalent base-band representation of a multipath channel can be expressed as
tap-weighting coefficient and τ is the delay parameter. The above 2-parameter channel
model obeys the wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) assumption. Based
on the WSSUS and quasi-stationary assumptions, the channel tap-weighting coefficients are
time-varying but do not change significantly within a single OFDM block duration of length
NTs, where Ts is the sampling period. Because the fractional durations (i.e., in a fraction of
Ts) of delays are not taken into consideration, for a given time instant the above-mentioned
depends on the multipath delay spread. MTs is thus the longest path delay; M varies
according to the operating environment and cannot be known a priori at the receiving end.
vector whose elements are IID zero-mean Gaussian random variables with variance σ w2 .
While in practice a residual timing error ϑ may occur with the employed symbol timing
synchronization mechanism, the steady-state-response portion of r’ can hopefully be
obtained from
rϑ = GR ,ϑ ⋅ r′, GR ,ϑ = ⎡⎢0 N ×( L −ϑ ) I N 0 N ×( M +ϑ − 1) ⎤⎥ .
⎣ ⎦
(40)
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 37
If the residual timing error ϑ in the above equation falls within [0, L − M], there is no ISI in
the received signal. In practice, ϑ may be only a few samples long and may be less than M,
and ϑ = 0 represents perfect synchronization. The demodulation process at the receiving end
can be performed by means of a DFT operation, and the received signal vector should thus
be transformed back into the sub-carrier space, i.e.,
Rϑ = FT ⋅ rϑ ∈ C N ×1 , (41)
where
FT = { f k′ , n } ∈ C N × N ,
channels. These entries of Rϑ, i.e., Rϑk , k ∈ ζp, are exploited to estimate the pilot sub-channel
the outputs of the transmitted pilot symbols that pass through the corresponding pilot sub-
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38 Communications and Networking
rϑ = cϑ ⋅ g + wϑ = cϑ ⋅ g + w
# ϑ, (42)
where cϑ = cϑ + c#ϑ ; w
# ϑ = c#ϑ· g + wϑ ;
{ }
cϑ = cϑp ,q ∈ C
N ×N p
cϑp ,q = x p −ϑ − q = x p −ϑ − q + x# p −ϑ − q ,
= {c } ∈ C
,
cp ,q = x p −ϑ − q ,
ϑ N ×N p ϑ
N N N
= {c# } ∈ C
cϑ p ,q ,
c p ,q = x# p −ϑ − q ,
ϑ N ×N p
#ϑ
N
c#ϑ p ,q ,
0 ≤ p ≤ N − 1, 0 ≤ q ≤ N p − 1;
N
timing error exists, i.e., ϑ = 0, then gm = hm, m = 0,1, ··· ,M − 1 and gm = 0, M ≤ m < Np. Here
the effective components that represent the channel tap-weighting coefficients. If no residual
M ≤ Np, and at least (Np − M) components in g must be zeros due to the lack of precise
information about M at the receiving end, especially given that mobile OFDM
communication systems often operate on a rapidly time-varying channel. As a result, the
CIR can be estimated by means of a standard over-determined LS method, i.e.,
{ } ( )
−1
gˆ TDLS = gˆ m = c0H c0 c0H ⋅ rϑ ∈ C
TDLS N p ×1
, (43)
{ }
c0 = cp0,q ∈ C
N ×N p
, cp0,q = x p − q , 0 ≤ p ≤ N − 1,
N
0 ≤ q ≤ N p − 1.
In practice, a residual timing error that occurs in the DFT demodulation process inherently
timing error ϑ are linearly dependent on both the timing error ϑ and the sub-channel index
leads to phase errors in rotating the demodulated symbols. The phase errors caused by a
k. Any small residual timing error can severely degrade the transmission performance in all
of the previous studies that exploit two-stage CTPA CEs (Hsieh & Wei, 1998; Edfors et al.,
1998; Seller, 2004; Edfors et al., 1996; Van de Beek et al., 1995; Park et al., 2004; Zhao &
timing errors. Because the timing error ϑ that occurs with the received training sequence
Huang, 1997). On the other hand, the studied technique has a higher level of tolerance to
(i.e., delayed replica of x ) is the same as the error that occurs with the received data
sequence (i.e., delayed replica of x# ), the extra phase errors inserted into the demodulated
symbols on individual sub-channels are the same as those that occur in the estimates of the
sub-channel gains. Therefore, the extra phase rotations in the studied technique can be
completely removed in the succeeding single-tap equalization process conducted on
individual sub-channels. As a result, the studied technique can effectively deal with the
problems caused by a residual timing error.
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 39
4.3 Remarks
The TD LS CE technique for OFDM communications has been studied in practical mobile
environments. The studied TDLS technique based on the CTPA can accurately estimate the
CIR and effectively track rapid CIR variations and can therefore achieve low error
probabilities. A generic estimator is also performed sequentially on all OFDM blocks
without assistance from a priori channel information and without increasing the
computational complexity. Furthermore, the studied technique also exhibits better
robustness to residual timing errors that occur in the DFT demodulation.
Whether OFDM communication should employ FD CE or TD CE has become an endless
debate, because FD CE and equalization have attracted significant attention in recent years.
While the LS method is not new, the TD CE may also not be considered novel. Although
authors of some other publications thought that TDLS CE was not important, this must be a
misunderstanding, and this section provides a very practical study. The material studied in
this section has been deeply investigated in a previous study and its references (Lin, 2008c).
This author strongly encourages interested readers, especially practical engineers and
potential researchers, to examine the study and references closely to gain a deeper
understanding of the applicability and practical value of the OFDM TD LS CE.
κ = 0,1,A , N u − 1,
∑
Nu −1
Xu [κ ] = χ u [ n]e − j 2π nκ /N u ,
1
u = 0,1,A ,U − 1,
(44)
Nu n=0
where U denotes the number of the users transmitting information toward the base-station,
denotes the time index and κ denotes the sub-carrier index. For a localized chunk
u denotes the user index, Nu denotes the sub-channel number which the uth user occupies, n
arrangement used in the LTE specification, Xu[κ], κ = 0,1, ··· , Nu − 1 are allocated onto Nu
sub-channels, i.e.,
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40 Communications and Networking
k = Γ u (κ ) = ∑ N i + κ
⎧ u−1
⎪Xu [κ ],
Su [ k ] = ⎨
k ≠ Γ u (κ ) , κ = 0,1,A , N u − 1.
i =0
⎪ 0,
(45)
⎩
The transmitted signal of the uth user is given by
∑
1 N −1 n = 0,1,A , N − 1;
su [n] = Su [ k ]e j 2π kn /N ,
u = 0,1,A , U − 1.
(46)
N k =0
The signal received at the base-station can be expressed as
where hu[m,n] is the sample-spaced channel impulse response of the mth resolvable path on
the time index n for the uth user, M denotes the total number of resolvable paths on the
σ w2 . The time-varying multipath fading channel considered here meets the WSSUS
frequency-selective fading channel and w[n] is AWGN with zero mean and a variance of
{ }
complex Gaussian random variable, with an autocorrelation function that is written as
( )
E hu [ m, n]hu* [ k , l ] = σ u2 [m]J 0 2π ν u n − l Ts δ [m − k ], (48)
where δ[· ] denotes the Dirac delta function, J0(· ) denotes the zeroth-order Bessel function of
the first kind, νu denotes the maximum Doppler frequency of the uth user and σ u2 [ m]
denotes the power of the mth resolvable path on the channel that the uth user experiences.
In addition, it is assumed in the above equation that the channel tap-weighting coefficients
on different resolvable paths are uncorrelated and that the channel tap-weighting
coefficients on an individual resolvable path have the Clarke’s Doppler power spectral
density derived by Jakes (Jakes & Cox, 1994). To simplify the formulation of Equation 47, it
is assumed that timing synchronization is perfect, ISI can be avoided and CP can be
removed. At the receiving end, the FFT demodulation is conducted, and the received TD
signal r[n] is thus transformed into the FD for demultiplexing, i.e.,
∑ r[n]e− j 2π nk /N
N −1
R[ k ] =
1
N n=0
∑ H u ,N /2 [ k ]Su[ k ] + W [ k ],
U −1
(49)
= k = 0,1,A , N − 1,
u=0
where
H u , N /2 [ k ] 7 H u [ k , n], n = 0,1,A , N − 1,
∑ hu[m, n]e− j 2π mk /N , ∀k = Γ u (κ ) ,
N −1
=
1
H u [ k , n]
N m=0
∑ w[n]e− j 2π nk /N ,
N −1
= k = 0,1,A , N − 1.
1
W [k]
N n=0
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 41
Hˆ FDLS [ k ] = , k = Γ u (κ ) ,
R[ k ]Sp* [ k ]
2
(50)
Sp [ k ]
end. In the LTE uplink, Sp[k], ∀k are obtained by transforming a Zadoff-Chu sequence onto
where Sp[k] represents the pilot symbols in the FD, which are known a priori at the receiving
the sub-carrier domain. Several CE techniques have been discussed in greater detail in a
previous study (Huang & Lin, 2010). When the CE conducted by taking advantage of the
pilot block is complete, several interpolation (or extrapolation) methods are conducted in
the time direction to effectively smooth (or predict) the CTF or CIR upon transmission of the
information-bearing symbols.
FN =
1
N
{ }
WNkl , WN = e − j 2π /N , 0 ≤ k < N , 0 ≤ l < N.
Immediately after the IDFT modulation process, a postfix vector c’L = [c0 c1 ··· cL−1]T is
appended to the IDFT modulation output vector x’N[i]. In this section, c’L is sifted from a
partial period of a long pseudo-random sequence, and c’L is phase-updated at every frame
that contains several TD OFDM signal blocks, rather than using a deterministic postfix
vector with a pseudo-random weight as in the conventional PRP-OFDM (Muck et al., 2006;
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42 Communications and Networking
2005; 2003). This change is desirable when considering that previous works did not suggest
long PRP sequences (Muck et al., 2006; 2005; 2003) and that pseudo-random sequences, e.g.,
expressed as
x Ξ [i ] = Fzp
H
X N [ i ] + cΞ , (52)
where
⎡ I ⎤ ⎡0 ⎤
= ⎢ N ⎥ FNH , cΞ = ⎢ N ×1 ⎥ ,
⎣ L× N ⎦ ′
⎣ L×1 ⎦ Ξ×1
H
Fzp
0 c
IN denotes an N × N identity matrix and 0L×N denotes a zero matrix of the size indicated in
the subscript. The elements of x Ξ [i ] are then transmitted sequentially one by one (probably
with transmit filtering or symbol shaping).
The channel studied here is modelled with a tapped-delay line of order v − 1, i.e., the
impulse response of the investigated channel can be written as h = [h0 h1 ··· hv−1]T. It is
commonly assumed that the length of the postfix (or prefix) L is larger than the length of the
channel impulse response v. Typically, the multipath delay spread of the transmission
channel is dynamic and cannot be determined a priori at the receiving end. Therefore, the
number of channel tap-weighting coefficients is often assumed to be up to L to consider the
worst ISI-free case, i.e., v = L. Thus, the longest excess delay is vTs, where Ts denotes the
sample duration.
At the receiving end, the ith OFDM symbol block can be formulated as
⎡ 〈 r [ i − 1]N :Ξ− 1 〉 ⎤
r CE,L + v − 1 [ i ] = ⎢ Ξ ⎥
⎣ 〈 r Ξ [ i ] 0: v − 2 〉 ⎦ ( L + v − 1)×1
, (54)
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 43
where 〈A〉p:q denotes either a column vector with elements arranged as [Ap Ap+1 ··· Aq]T, sifted
from a column vector A, or a row vector with elements arranged as [Ap Ap+1 ··· Aq], sifted
from a row vector A. In fact, rCE,L+v−1[i] can be reformulated in detail as follows:
C[i ] = ( CL [i ] + Co + CU [i ]) ,
column 0 ( Co ) = ⎡⎣c0 c1 A cL − 1 0 A
0 ⎤⎦ ;
T
and
In the above equation, CL[i]h results in ISI extending from on-time symbols onto the CE.
Meanwhile, CU[i]h leads to IBI extending from preceding symbols onto the CE. In
accordance with the LS philosophy (Stark & Woods, 2001; Kay, 1993), the CE studied here
can thus be formulated as
( )
−1
hˆ 0 [i ] = Co H Co Co H rCE,L + v − 1[i ], (56)
where
rCE,L + v − 1[i ] =
1
2
( r CE,L + v −1[i ] + r CE,L + v −1[i + 1]) .
In fact, the CE performed using r CE,L + v − 1[i ] forces the channel estimator hˆ 0 [i ] , derived in
Equation 56, to effectively exploit the first-order statistics to conduct the TD LI as employed
in a previous work (Ma et al., 2006). Because of the LS philosophy, the statistics of w’[i] need
not be completely known prior to performing the CE and (CoHCo)−1 CoH can be pre-
calculated and pre-stored as a generic LS CE to reduce complexity. Furthermore, by taking
advantage of decision-directed (DD) SIC, estimates of the CIR can be iteratively obtained by
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44 Communications and Networking
( )
where
⎡ Iv 0 v×( N − v ) ⎤
H k [i ] = FN ⎢ ⎥ hˆ [i ], k = 0,1.
⎢⎣0( N − v )× v 0( N − v )×( N − v ) ⎥⎦ k
(58)
OLA: Based on the signal formatting in the PRP-OFDM communication under investigation,
the ICI caused by various excess delays can be taken into account by modifying the signal
symbol for signal detection to be
where
⎡〈 r Ξ [ i ]〉 N :N + v − 2 ⎤
r ICIc, N [i ] = ⎢ ⎥
⎢⎣ 0( N − v + 1)×1 ⎦⎥
is exploited here for the purpose of ICI compensation. In fact, RSD,1,N[i] in Equation 61 can be
considered to be a complexity-reduced variant modified from the method that was called
the overlap-add (OLA) approach in previous studies (Muquest et al., 2002; Muck et al.,
2003). It has been proven in previous studies (Muquet et al., 2000) that the OLA helps the
ZP-OFDM achieve the same performance as the CP-OFDM because the OLA can reduce ICI
by compensating for IPI and timing errors to maintain the orthogonality among sub-carriers,
as in the CP-OFDM.
OLA with SIC: The conventional OLA mentioned above introduces some self-interference
to the PRP-OFDM. Therefore, the self-interference occurring in the PRP-OFDM signal
detection has to be eliminated. As a result, the signals fed into the detection can be
formulated as
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Channel Estimation for Wireless OFDM Communications 45
( )
R SD,2,k , N [i ] = FN r SD, N [i ] + r ICIc, N [i ] − rˆ prp, k [i ] , k = 0,1,
where
and
#′
# = C
( v − 1)× v
C o o
# ′ , which
denotes a matrix containing the most upper-left (v − 1) × v elements of the matrix C o
T
is a circulant matrix in which the left-most column is [c0 c1 ··· cL−1] .
6.3 Remarks
The LS CE technique has been thoroughly investigated in practical mobile environments. By
taking advantage of SIC mechanisms, the studied technique can efficiently eliminate various
interferences, accurately estimate the CIR, effectively track rapid CIR variations and,
therefore, achieve low error probabilities. The studied technique can also achieve low bit
error floors. The generic estimator assisted by LS CE can be performed sequentially on all
OFDM blocks for complexity reduction without a priori channel information, which is
required by conventional techniques based on MMSE. Several previous studies and their
references regarding this topic are worth noting (Lin, 2009b;a; Lin & Lin, 2009; Lin, 2008b;a).
7. Summary
In this chapter, a variety of CE techniques on OFDM communications were investigated.
This author does not attempt to present this topic in detail nor provide theoretical
derivations and rigorous statistical analysis, though they are thought of as the most crucial
for a journal publication. Insightful and reader-friendly descriptions are presented to attract
readers of any level, including practicing communication engineers and beginning and
professional researchers. All interested readers can easily find noteworthy materials in
much greater detail from previous publications and the references cited in this chapter.
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channel estimation by singular value decomposition, Proceedings of IEEE 46th
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channel estimation by singular value decomposition, IEEE Transactions on
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Elliott, D. F. (1988). Handbook of Digital Signal Processing: Engineering Applications, Academic
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Fazel, K. (1994). Performance of convolutionally coded cdma/ofdm in a frequency-time
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Communications and Networking
Edited by Jun Peng
ISBN 978-953-307-114-5
Hard cover, 434 pages
Publisher Sciyo
Published online 28, September, 2010
Published in print edition September, 2010
This book "Communications and Networking" focuses on the issues at the lowest two layers of
communications and networking and provides recent research results on some of these issues. In particular, it
first introduces recent research results on many important issues at the physical layer and data link layer of
communications and networking and then briefly shows some results on some other important topics such as
security and the application of wireless networks. In summary, this book covers a wide range of interesting
topics of communications and networking. The introductions, data, and references in this book will help the
readers know more abut this topic and help them explore this exciting and fast-evolving field.
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