An enhanced channel estimation algorithm for OFDM: combined EM algorithm and polynomial fitting

• Published in: 2003 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2003. Proceedings. (ICASSP '03) Vol. 4; pp. IV - 680
• Main Authors: Xiaoqiang Ma, Kobayashi, H., Schwartz, S.C.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2003
• Subjects: Additive white noise; AWGN; Bit error rate; Channel estimation; Fading; Frequency estimation; Least squares approximation; OFDM; Polynomials; Rayleigh channels
• ISBN: 9780780376632; 0780376633
• ISSN: 1520-6149
• DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP.2003.1202734

Estimating a channel that is subject to frequency selective Rayleigh fading is a challenging problem in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. We propose an enhanced channel estimation algorithm that combines the EM-based algorithms proposed previously and a least squares polynomial fitting (LSPF) approach. The combined algorithm can efficiently estimate the channel response of an OFDM system operating in an environment with multipath fading and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). The algorithm can improve the channel estimate obtained from the EM-based algorithms by polynomial fitting. Simulation results show that the bit error rate (BER) as well as the mean square error (MSE) of the channel can be improved by the algorithm. In particular, with these additional computations and demodulation delay, the MSE can be made smaller than the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB).